Showing posts with label judicial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label judicial. Show all posts

Friday, October 27, 2017

95-year-old black judge celebrates 50 years on federal bench

Judge Damon J. Keith thinks back on his 50 years on the federal bench and remembers many tumultuous and significant times, including being sued by President Richard Nixon after ruling that wiretapping couldn't be done without a court order.

The 95-year-old from Detroit, the only African-American among six current federal judges who have served 50 or more years according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, still hears cases about four times a year at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. His approach — in or out of the spotlight, on or off the bench — is the same: Fight for the Constitution, not with each other.

"Just treat everyone with dignity," said Keith, who will be honored at a gala Saturday in Detroit for reaching the half-century mark.

The phrase "Equal justice under law," which is etched onto the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, drives Keith and reminds him of lessons Thurgood Marshall taught him as one of his professors at Howard University. Marshall became the first black Supreme Court justice in October 1967 — the same month Keith, a prominent lawyer in his own right by then, was appointed to the federal bench.

He recalled Marshall saying, "The white men wrote those four words. When you leave Howard, I want you to go out and practice law and see what you can do to enforce those four words."

"And that's what I've tried to do," Keith said last week at Detroit's historic federal court building, where he's had an office since President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the federal district court 50 years ago.

In 1970, Keith ordered a bus policy and new boundaries in the Pontiac, Michigan, school district to break up racial segregation.

A year later, he made another groundbreaking decision, finding that Hamtramck, Michigan, illegally destroyed black neighborhoods in the name of urban renewal with the federal government's help. The remedy was 200 housing units for blacks. The court case is still alive decades later due to disputes over property taxes and the slow pace of construction.

Read more: 95-year-old black judge celebrates 50 years on federal bench

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Black judge removes Mississippi flag with Confederate emblem from courtroom

Carlos Moore made history this week when he took to the bench as the first African-American municipal judge in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Then he made a ruckus.

On his first day on the job, Moore ordered officials to remove the Mississippi state flag from his courtroom, because that flag contains the Confederate emblem in its upper left corner.

"It was such a great feeling to see the police officer drag the despicable flag from the courtroom during open court. Great first day!" the judge posted on Facebook on Monday.

In Moore's eyes, the Mississippi state flag doesn't stand for justice and instead shows the state supports the Confederacy's legacy of slavery, he told WATN-TV in Memphis.

Another factor in Moore's decision was the fact that a lot of the people who will stand before him in court will be African-Americans.

"Most of the people that appear before me will be African-American, and they need to feel that the courtroom is gonna be a place they can get justice," he said. "That flag does not stand for justice."

It isn't the first time Moore has fought the flag. He filed a federal lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop the state from flying the flag and to rule that its design is unconstitutional. But US District Judge Carlton W. Reeves tossed the suit out last year.

[SOURCE: CNN]

Wednesday, September 07, 2016

President Obama Nominates Muslim Judge


President Obama Nominates Abid Riaz Qureshi to Serve on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama nominated Abid Riaz Qureshi to serve on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
“I am pleased to nominate Mr. Qureshi to serve on the United States District Court bench,” said President Obama. “I am confident he will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice.”
Abid Riaz Qureshi: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Abid Riaz Qureshi is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins LLP, where he specializes in cases involving the False Claims Act, health care fraud, and securities violations. Qureshi has spent the entirety of his legal career at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he currently serves as the Global Chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee, a position he has held since 2012. From 2006 to 2011, he served as Co-Chair of the Litigation Department in the Washington, D.C. office. Qureshi has also served on the District of Columbia Bar Association’s Legal Ethics Committee since 2015. He received his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1997 and his B.A. summa cum laude from Cornell University in 1993.