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After 11-Year Delay, Judge White Finally
Wins Federal Court Nod From Senate
Robert A. Sklar
Editor
he wait is over.
Michigan Court of Appeals/First District Judge Helene
White has won U.S. Senate confirmation for the federal
appellate court judgeship she has coveted since being nominated by
President Bill Clinton in 1997.
White's confirmation vote was 63-32; 32
Republicans opposed while 15 sided with 48
Democrats to confirm.
The University of Pennsylvania Law School
graduate's lifetime appointment marks just the third
time since the 1950s that a Jew has been named to a
U.S. Court of Appeals/Sixth Circuit judgeship.
"I believe it's fair to say that the performance
Judge White
and the skills she has shown on the Michigan
Court of Appeals will be replicated in her service
on the Sixth Circuit;' said Judge Avern Cohn of the U.S. District
Court in Detroit.
White, 53, is a New York native. She has two young children.
Cohn has known White since she clerked for Michigan Supreme
Court Justice Charles Levin from 1978 to 1980. She later married and
divorced Levin, a cousin of U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan.
"She's a good lawyer, has good analytical skills and has sound judg-
ment:' Cohn said. "She is imbued with good judicial values"
A deal by Michigan's two Democratic senators and the Bush admin-
istration cleared the political briar patch that stalled White's elevation
to the Sixth Circuit. The Cincinnati-based court hears cases from four
Midwest states: Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Confirmation came on June 24 without the partisan politics
that held up her nomination for 11 years. For the last four years of
Clinton's presidency, she never had the courtesy of receiving a confir-
mation hearing, one of the longest periods of wrangling over a federal
appellate judgeship ever.
Sen. Levin joined with fellow Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow to up
the pressure on Bush by stifling several of his federal court appoint-
ments. The partisan bickering kept the Sixth Circuit short two judges
despite a growing case backlog.
To open the federal appellate court docket to White, the White
House withdrew the nomination of U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy of
Detroit and instead nominated him to the Detroit-based U.S. District
Court for Michigan's Eastern District.
For their part, Levin and Stabenow agreed to back the Bush nomi-
nation of Troy attorney Raymond Kethledge to the Sixth Circuit. Bush
first tried to appoint him in 2005.
White is a member of the Michigan Court of Appeals
Rule Committee and the American Bar Association's Judicial
Administration Division.
The Detroit resident has been a state appellate judge since 1993.
She previously served on Detroit's old Common Pleas Court, the 36th
District Court of Michigan in Detroit and the Wayne Count Circuit
Court.
Cohn got to know White well when she ran for Common Pleas
Court in 1981.
"As she got ready to run, she came to see me Cohn said. "She
solicited my advice and I urged her to establish and project her
credibility as a candidate. And she did, all on her own"
White is a board member of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit and the American Jewish Committee/Detroit Chapter. She also
is on the board of JVS and COTS (Coalition on Temporary Shelter),
among other local organizations.
Cohn, a longtime Jewish communal leader, admires her capacity to
separate work from community.
"Judge White he said, "hasn't allowed her judicial duties to absorb
her and prevent devoting her time to our community." CI
Church-State Fight In Michigan
Frankenmuth is known for its chicken dinners, but a resident doesn't
think the town 25 miles north of Flint also should be known for a
70-foot cross in a city park or a cross on its official seal and a state
bridge.
A public outcry against 66-year-old Lloyd Clarke has forced Clarke
to withdraw from the battle. He has been taunted on local radio, in
the local newspapers and by children, and a local church distributed
crosses that residents placed on their front lawns. One was placed in
front of his apartment.
According to a Detroit News report, the town of 4,800 was founded
by Lutheran missionaries in 1845 and still has one of the highest con-
centrations of Lutherans in the Midwest.
Clarke, an atheist, recently moved to the town from Bay City to be
closer to family.
At his request, Frankenmuth removed the crosses from the down-
town bridge, but balked when he asked about the city park and the
city seal.
The seal shows a Luther rose, which contains the cross.
The Christian-based Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor says it
was retained by the city to fight any lawsuit that might be brought on
the issue.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State in
Washington, D.C., is considering the case.
Spertus Museum Closes Controversial Exhibit
The controversial display, "Imaginary Coordinates;' combining old maps
of the Holy Land with modern art by Israeli and Palestinian women, has
been shut down by officials of the Spertus Museum in Chicago.
An outcry by Jewish patrons led the museum to give docent-guided
tours only of the exhibit. Continuing criticism led officials last week to
close the show, which had been scheduled to run through September.
The art included, among other pieces, the ancient maps, a
Chanukah menorah with bullet casings, a naked woman on a beach
inside a hula-hoop of barbed wire, and Palestinian folk embroidery.
Spertus President Howard Sulkin apologized that the exhibit
offended the museum's core constituents. Steven Nasatir, president of
the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Chicago, said, "Aspects
of it were clearly anti-Israel. I was very surprised a Jewish institution
would put forward this exhibition."
In 2002, the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
canceled a Jewish Book Fair appearance by Star Trek actor Leonard
Nimoy, who had been invited to discuss his photographic volume,
Shekhina. The book contained photos of naked women, some covered
by prayer shawls. The cover photo showed a woman loosely covered
and wearing tefillin on her arm and hand. After weeks of controversy
about Nimoy's scheduled appearance at the JCC, Nimoy gave his talk
before a sold-out audience at Temple Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield,
sponsored by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.
- Alan Hitsky, associate editor
- Alan Hitsky, associate editor
T
A10
July 3 • 2008
What Have I
Got To Lose?
JN Story
Development
Editor Keri
Guten Cohen
takes you
along in her
quest for fit-
ness as she
participates
in a new pro-
gram at Franklin Athletic Club
in Southfield. Along with JN
reader Dr. Mark DeVore and
four others, she's a guinea pig
testing the program, which also
includes food from Gourmet
Everyday in Ferndale. That
means restricted calories and
more exercise than most couch
potatoes get in a year. Hey,
what has she got to lose?
Find out by reading her blog.
Go to JNonline.us and click on
the box labeled "What Have I
Got To Lose?" on the right.
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