P IA Suppo e
someon anted to teal b p t
chievcmen ,rein in 'pre nt ains
nd cut off future expectation
among Afric n-Americ ns bout
. participation in the judicial p
That person ould have found it dif-
, ficult to devi better plan th
DOminatin Clarence TOOm to th
Supreme Court hile decreasing t
· number of African-Arnerlcanjud e
. on the Federal bench.
The confirm lion of Clarence
, Thom forced the nation to p y at
tention to many i ues, from th
Senate' role in confirming Supreme
Court J lice to exual harassment
of om n in th workpl ce, But th
Thomas confirm tion proceedings
diverted our ttention from one vital
i ue: Thanks 0 Presidents Ronald
Reagan and George Bush, African
American judge on the United
States Courts of Appeals have been
turned into an endangered pecies
nd are now on the edge of extinc
tion.
. For more than 99 percent of
Federal litigants, the 13 Courts of
Appeals are effectively the courts of
last resort.
Last term, the Supreme Court
. heard slightly more than 100 cases.
In the me period, the Courts of
Appeals decided 41,000 cases; in ad
dition, they had 32,000 cases pend
ing on their dockets at the end of the
year.
FO R 14! YEARS, the Federal
courts in the continental United
. States - the Supreme Court, Courts
of Appeals and District Courts -
. were entirely made up of white
males. The first woman, Florence �
Allen, w appotnted by Ptankttn D.
00 evelt, in 1934, and the first
African-American, William H. Has
tie, in 1949, by Harry S. Truman.
During his eight years in office,
Dwight D. Eisenhower, however,
did not appoint a single African
American to any Federal court in the
continental U.S. AI, €or the Courts of
Appeals, John F. Kennedy appointed'
. one African-American, Thurgood
Marshall, and Lyndon B. Johnson
appointed two, Spottswood W.
Robinson 3rd and Wade H. McCree
'Jr. Neither Richard Nixon nor
Gerald R. Ford appointed any
African-Americans to the Courts of
Appeals.
Presidents Nixon and Ford did
appoint a total of nine African- ,
Americans to the District Courts.
President Reagan appointed six, and
Pre ident Bush has appointed nine.
By contrast, Jimmy Carter appointed
,28 to these same courts. He ap
pointed more African-Americans in
four years than Pre idents Nixon,
Ford, Reagan and Bush combined
appointed in the course of nearly 20
years.
President 'Carter also took sig
nificant steps in his appointments to
. the Courts of Appeals. When he be
came President in 1977, there were
only two African-American judges
on the Courts of Appeals. In four
years in office, he appointed nine,
including the first African-American
woman, Arnalya L. Kearse. Their
presence made the Federal judiciary
far stronger than it otherwise would
have been.
Moreover, to the extent that the
appointment of judge is a barometer
of the President'S feelings about
placing historically excluded group
in positions of power, Jimmy Carter
showed that he had complete con
qdence in African-Americans.
President Reagan apparently felt
otherwise and Pre ident Bu hap
parently does, too. On taking office, •
they both asserted that they wanted a
far more "conservative" Federal
court sy tern. In that, they have sue- .
ceeded admirably. But in the
proce s they have turned the Courts
'Of Appeah into what Judge Stepnen
Reinhardt of the Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit has called "a sym
bol of white power."
IN EIGHT YEARS of office, out
of a total of 83 ppellate appoint
ments' Rona (t Reagan found only
one African-American whom he
deemed worthy of appointment,
Lawrence W. Pierce. President
Bush's record i just as aby mal. .
Of hi 1 appointments to the
rent to, rather th n a promoter of. become extinct.
equal j tice for all.
A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. i
nior judg and/ormerChie/Jud
of tbe U.S. COW't of Appeals for the
Third Circuit. This article i
adapted/rom a speech � deli ered
to the National Bar A ociation in St.
Louis.
Voter regi tration
day lated
Th D troi t Cotillion Club will
ponsor a W y ,0 kland, and
Ma mb Counti Voter Regi tra
tion Day, Wednesday, September
23, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at
The Cotillion Qub 13221 Puritan
Ave. at Cheyenne in D troit.
For more information call 272-
8611.
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