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 .
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
FROM THE BENCH
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 )
“ He was one of three 20thcentury United States federal court judges assassinated because of his judicial service .”
“ 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 ) 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 against , such as Harvard Law School who did not admit her or other women at the time . One tale was about
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