Robinson in 1972. He also appointed Horace T. Ward as a judge on the Civil Court of Fulton County in 1974, making him the first African American judge in Georgia.
During his Presidency, Carter appointed a total of 262 Article III federal judges. This figure includes 56 judges to the Courts of Appeals, 203 to the United States District Courts, two to the United States Court of Claims, and one to the U. S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.
President Carter appointed more minority and female judges to the federal judiciary than all previous presidents combined. Pre-Carter, only 31 minorities had ever been named to federal judgeships. He named 57. Pre-Carter, only eight women had ever been named to federal judgeships. He named 41. When President Carter left office, he had appointed 41 of the 46 women serving as federal judges.
Although there were no vacancies on the Supreme Court during his term, President Carter appointed two judges to the U. S. Court of Appeals who were later elevated to the Supreme Court: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Justice Breyer was initially appointed judge to the First Circuit and Justice Ginsburg was initially appointed to the District of Columbia Circuit. Justice Ginsburg was not the only important Jewish woman appointed to a judgeship by Carter, as shown when we review President Carter’ s appointments to the Eleventh Circuit of the U. S. Court of Appeals and to the Northern District of Georgia.
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appointed judges to the Fifth District, this section of the article will concentrate on the judges he appointed to the Fifth District that later became part of the Eleventh District. Those judges include:
Robert Smith Vance( Fifth Circuit / Eleventh Circuit – 1977-1989 Active Service)
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“ As a lawyer, Vance quickly sided with the developing civil rights movement, as shown by his participation as an intervening plaintiff in litigation that ultimately resulted in the United States Supreme Court decision in Reynolds v. Sims, which decided that state legislative districts had to be roughly equal in population. Vance was also the first notable Birmingham attorney to reject the unwritten‘ gentleman’ s agreement’ by which all black members of a jury pool were eliminated from serving as jurors in civil cases.”“ On December 16, 1989, Vance was assassinated at his home in Mountain Brook, Alabama, when he opened a package containing a mail bomb. Vance was killed instantly …”( Source Wikipedia.) His daughter-in-law, Joyce Vance, teaches at the University of Alabama Law School and is a frequent television commentator on legal issues.
Phyllis A. Kravitch( Fifth Circuit / Eleventh Circuit – 1979-1996 Active Service)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Justice Stephen Breyer
At the beginning of President Carter’ s Presidency, the Fifth Circuit of the US Court of Appeals encompassed a large area, covering six states, including Georgia. Since the caseload was growing, Congress decided to split the Fifth Circuit in half in 1981 to improve the efficiency and manageability of the court system. The new Eleventh Circuit would encompass the judicial districts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia. The Fifth Circuit retained jurisdiction over Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
The Eleventh Circuit of the US Court of Appeals Courthouse is in Atlanta, Georgia. While President Carter
Judge Kravitch, who was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1920 and graduated from Goucher College with a B. A. in 1941and the University of Pennsylvania Law School with a LL. B. in 1943. She was on the Law Review Board of Editors. She was in private practice in Savannah until 1976 until she became a judge on the Superior Court of Georgia, Eastern Judicial Circuit from 1977-1979.
Judge Kravitch, as a Jewish woman, is another example of President Carter’ s devotion to religious diversity and elevating the role of women. Judge Kravitch was the first woman appointed to the Eleventh Circuit and the third woman to serve as a United States Circuit Judge. Four of her law clerks became US Supreme Court clerks. She was generous of her time as a judge, often speaking to groups of lawyers; on occasion she would talk about places where she had been discriminated
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