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WaPo: May 25, 1980 - Carter Names Record Number of Minorities to Federal Bench
WaPo - (archived: https://archive.ph/ADdVh ) Carter Names Record Number of Minorities to Federal Bench
May 25, 1980
By Charles R. Babcock
For four days last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room was an extraordinary showcase of the new South, though a touch of the old intruded at times.
There in the front row sat U.W. Clemon and Fred D. Gray, President Carter's nominees to be the first black federal judges from Alabama. Both are heroes of the civil rights movement and they brought with them an impressive list of supporters that demonstrated the increased political clout of blacks in the South.
Sens. Howell T. Heflin (D) and Donald W. Stewart (D), their home-state sponsors, sat through much of the 12-hour sessions, usually joined only by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), a freshmen chairing the hearings in the absence of more senior members of the committee.
The hearings on Clemon and Gray are just the latest in the unprecedented number of nominations of members of minorities to coveted seats on the federal judiciary by the Carter administration.
According to figures compiled by the Justice Department, Carter has appointed 38 black judges, double the number who were on the federal bench when he entered office.
In fact, about a third of the record 260 judges Carter has nominated during his term in office have been blacks, women or Hispanics. There were only five women and five Hispanic federal judges when Carter was inaugurated in 1977. Since then he has appointed 39 women and 14 Hispanics.
/snip
May 25, 1980
By Charles R. Babcock
For four days last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room was an extraordinary showcase of the new South, though a touch of the old intruded at times.
There in the front row sat U.W. Clemon and Fred D. Gray, President Carter's nominees to be the first black federal judges from Alabama. Both are heroes of the civil rights movement and they brought with them an impressive list of supporters that demonstrated the increased political clout of blacks in the South.
Sens. Howell T. Heflin (D) and Donald W. Stewart (D), their home-state sponsors, sat through much of the 12-hour sessions, usually joined only by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), a freshmen chairing the hearings in the absence of more senior members of the committee.
The hearings on Clemon and Gray are just the latest in the unprecedented number of nominations of members of minorities to coveted seats on the federal judiciary by the Carter administration.
According to figures compiled by the Justice Department, Carter has appointed 38 black judges, double the number who were on the federal bench when he entered office.
In fact, about a third of the record 260 judges Carter has nominated during his term in office have been blacks, women or Hispanics. There were only five women and five Hispanic federal judges when Carter was inaugurated in 1977. Since then he has appointed 39 women and 14 Hispanics.
/snip
