Edith Brown Clement
Encyclopedia
Edith "Joy" Brown Clement (born April 29, 1948) is a federal judge
on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
.
and educated at the University of Alabama
, receiving her B.A.
in 1969, and at the Tulane University Law School
, where she received a Juris Doctor
(J.D.) degree in 1972. Her early career included a period clerking
for Judge Herbert W. Christenberry at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (1973–1975), after which she worked as a maritime
attorney in private practice in New Orleans, Louisiana
until 1991.
On October 1, 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Clement to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
. She was confirmed by the Senate to this post on November 21, 1991 by a vote of 99-0, and received commission on November 25, 1991. In 2001 she served as chief judge of this court, before being nominated to the Fifth Circuit.
to fill a seat vacated by Judge John Malcolm Duhé, Jr.
, who had assumed Senior status
. President Bill Clinton
in 1999 had nominated Louisiana lawyer H. Alston Johnson III to the seat on the Fifth Circuit created by Duhé's vacancy, but the United States Senate
never held a hearing or took a vote on Johnson's nomination. Clement was confirmed by the Senate on November 13, 2001 by a vote of 99-0, and received her commission on November 26, 2001. She was the first judge Bush appointed to the Fifth Circuit who was confirmed by the Senate.
Judge Clement is a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, the Federal Bar Association
, the American Law Institute
, the Federalist Society
, the Tulane Law School's Inn of Court
, and the Committee on the Administrative Office of the Judicial Conference of the United States.
. She has written few high-profile opinions.
She wrote for the majority in Vogler v. Blackmore, reducing pain and suffering damages awarded by a jury to a mother and daughter who were killed in a car accident. The basis of her ruling was the lack of specific evidence about the daughter's "awareness of the impending collision." Large damage awards to the father and husband due to the loss of society in his wife and daughter were affirmed.
In Chiu v. Plano Independent School District, Clement held that a school district's policy requiring the preapproval of fliers handed out at a school event violated the First Amendment
free speech
rights of would-be protestors.
In United States v. Harris, Clement again wrote for the majority, this time reinstating the sentence of a police captain convicted for violation of federal civil rights
laws in using excessive force. The captain moved to vacate, arguing that his counsel had been insufficient. Clement and the court held that the representation had been reasonable.
Clement wrote a unanimous opinion for the 5th Circuit in Tarver v. City of Edna. She upheld officers' appeal of qualified immunity for reasonably arresting a father who was interfering with the return of a child to its rightful custodian. Qualified immunity also protected officers from the plaintiff's accusation of excessive force in using handcuffs
and confining him to the police car as part of the arrest. Officers also, however, slammed the car door on his foot and head, and the plaintiff's excessive force claim under this heading was remanded.
Clement has joined other conservative judges in dissenting in Commerce Clause
cases that implicate federalism
. In U.S. v. McFarland, she argued that the Commerce Clause power did not enable Congress to regulate local robberies. In GDF Realty Investments, Ltd. v. Norton Clement argued that the Endangered Species Act
needed a commercial nexus to enable regulation of endemic rare species
.
In 2010, Judge Clement joined Judges Garza and Owen in affirming the dismissal of the complaint in Doe v. Silsbee Independent School District. The plaintiff ("H.S.") was a cheerleader who was ordered by her high school to cheer for her alleged rapist, a basketball player named Rakheem Bolton. H.S. refused and was kicked off the team. She sued, claiming a violation of her First Amendment right to free speech. The Eastern District of Texas, Judge Thad Heartfield
, granted the school district's motion to dismiss, and Judges Clement, Garza, and Owen affirmed. H.S. was ordered to pay the school $45,000 in legal fees for filing a "frivolous" lawsuit.
, it was widely circulated in the press that Clement would receive the nomination. With John Roberts' promotion to Chief Justice by President Bush, the media mentioned Clement again as a possible choice
to fill what would have been his spot as an Associate Justice. Much of this speculation was because Clement is a conservative
woman with a limited paper trail on controversial issues. Time
, however, stated that Clement's chances were diminished because the Bush Administration
believed her to be guilty of excessive self-promotion. Eventually, George W. Bush
chose White House Counsel
Harriet Miers
as his nominee to succeed O'Connor, but with the withdrawal of Miers's nomination, Clement again was thought to be a potential nominee until the nomination of federal judge Samuel Alito
, who was ultimately confirmed.
United States federal judge
In the United States, the title of federal judge usually means a judge appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate in accordance with Article II of the United States Constitution....
on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Louisiana* Middle District of Louisiana...
.
Background
Judge Clement was born in Birmingham, AlabamaBirmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
and educated at the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
, receiving her B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in 1969, and at the Tulane University Law School
Tulane University Law School
Tulane University Law School is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States....
, where she received a Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
(J.D.) degree in 1972. Her early career included a period clerking
Law clerk
A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person who provides assistance to a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. Law clerks are not court clerks or courtroom deputies, who are administrative staff for the court. Most law clerks are recent law school graduates who...
for Judge Herbert W. Christenberry at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (1973–1975), after which she worked as a maritime
Admiralty law
Admiralty law is a distinct body of law which governs maritime questions and offenses. It is a body of both domestic law governing maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between private entities which operate vessels on the oceans...
attorney in private practice in New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
until 1991.
On October 1, 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Clement to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana is a federal trial court based in New Orleans. Like all U.S...
. She was confirmed by the Senate to this post on November 21, 1991 by a vote of 99-0, and received commission on November 25, 1991. In 2001 she served as chief judge of this court, before being nominated to the Fifth Circuit.
Fifth Circuit nomination and confirmation
Clement was nominated to her current seat on September 4, 2001 by President George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
to fill a seat vacated by Judge John Malcolm Duhé, Jr.
John Malcolm Duhé, Jr.
John Malcolm Duhé, Jr. is a retired senior judge on the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He currently practices law in Lafayette....
, who had assumed Senior status
Senior status
Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges, and judges in some state court systems. After federal judges have reached a certain combination of age and years of service on the federal courts, they are allowed to assume senior status...
. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
in 1999 had nominated Louisiana lawyer H. Alston Johnson III to the seat on the Fifth Circuit created by Duhé's vacancy, but the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
never held a hearing or took a vote on Johnson's nomination. Clement was confirmed by the Senate on November 13, 2001 by a vote of 99-0, and received her commission on November 26, 2001. She was the first judge Bush appointed to the Fifth Circuit who was confirmed by the Senate.
Judge Clement is a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, the Federal Bar Association
Federal Bar Association
The Federal Bar Association is the primary voluntary professional organization for private and government lawyers and judges practicing and sitting in federal courts in the United States.-Background:...
, the American Law Institute
American Law Institute
The American Law Institute was established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of American common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. The ALI drafts, approves, and publishes Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, model codes, and other proposals for law...
, the Federalist Society
Federalist Society
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, most frequently called simply the Federalist Society, is an organization of conservatives seeking reform of the current American legal system in accordance with a textualist and/or originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution...
, the Tulane Law School's Inn of Court
American Inns of Court Foundation
American Inns of Court are designed to improve the skills, professionalism and ethics of the bench and bar. An American Inn of Court is an amalgam of judges, lawyers, and in some cases, law professors and law students...
, and the Committee on the Administrative Office of the Judicial Conference of the United States.
Notable opinions
Clement has a reputation as a conservative jurist and a strict constructionist who strongly supports principles of federalismFederalist
The term federalist describes several political beliefs around the world. Also, it may refer to the concept of federalism or the type of government called a federation...
. She has written few high-profile opinions.
She wrote for the majority in Vogler v. Blackmore, reducing pain and suffering damages awarded by a jury to a mother and daughter who were killed in a car accident. The basis of her ruling was the lack of specific evidence about the daughter's "awareness of the impending collision." Large damage awards to the father and husband due to the loss of society in his wife and daughter were affirmed.
In Chiu v. Plano Independent School District, Clement held that a school district's policy requiring the preapproval of fliers handed out at a school event violated the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
free speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
rights of would-be protestors.
In United States v. Harris, Clement again wrote for the majority, this time reinstating the sentence of a police captain convicted for violation of federal civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
laws in using excessive force. The captain moved to vacate, arguing that his counsel had been insufficient. Clement and the court held that the representation had been reasonable.
Clement wrote a unanimous opinion for the 5th Circuit in Tarver v. City of Edna. She upheld officers' appeal of qualified immunity for reasonably arresting a father who was interfering with the return of a child to its rightful custodian. Qualified immunity also protected officers from the plaintiff's accusation of excessive force in using handcuffs
Handcuffs
Handcuffs are restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists close together. They comprise two parts, linked together by a chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each half has a rotating arm which engages with a ratchet that prevents it from being opened once closed around a person's wrist...
and confining him to the police car as part of the arrest. Officers also, however, slammed the car door on his foot and head, and the plaintiff's excessive force claim under this heading was remanded.
Clement has joined other conservative judges in dissenting in Commerce Clause
Commerce Clause
The Commerce Clause is an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution . The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." Courts and commentators have tended to...
cases that implicate federalism
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
. In U.S. v. McFarland, she argued that the Commerce Clause power did not enable Congress to regulate local robberies. In GDF Realty Investments, Ltd. v. Norton Clement argued that the Endangered Species Act
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and...
needed a commercial nexus to enable regulation of endemic rare species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
.
In 2010, Judge Clement joined Judges Garza and Owen in affirming the dismissal of the complaint in Doe v. Silsbee Independent School District. The plaintiff ("H.S.") was a cheerleader who was ordered by her high school to cheer for her alleged rapist, a basketball player named Rakheem Bolton. H.S. refused and was kicked off the team. She sued, claiming a violation of her First Amendment right to free speech. The Eastern District of Texas, Judge Thad Heartfield
Thad Heartfield
Thad Heartfield is a district judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Beaumont, Texas. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton on January 11, 1995, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 17, 1995 and received his commission on March 17, 1995. He served...
, granted the school district's motion to dismiss, and Judges Clement, Garza, and Owen affirmed. H.S. was ordered to pay the school $45,000 in legal fees for filing a "frivolous" lawsuit.
Possible Supreme Court nomination
Just prior to the nomination of John Roberts in the summer of 2005 to replace retiring justice Sandra Day O'ConnorSandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...
, it was widely circulated in the press that Clement would receive the nomination. With John Roberts' promotion to Chief Justice by President Bush, the media mentioned Clement again as a possible choice
Bush Supreme Court candidates
Speculation abounded over potential nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States by President George W. Bush since before his presidency....
to fill what would have been his spot as an Associate Justice. Much of this speculation was because Clement is a conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
woman with a limited paper trail on controversial issues. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, however, stated that Clement's chances were diminished because the Bush Administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
believed her to be guilty of excessive self-promotion. Eventually, George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
chose White House Counsel
White House Counsel
The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States.-Role:The Counsel's role is to advise the President on all legal issues concerning the President and the White House...
Harriet Miers
Harriet Miers
Harriet Ellan Miers is an American lawyer and former White House Counsel. In 2005, she was nominated by President George W. Bush to be an Associate Justice of the U.S...
as his nominee to succeed O'Connor, but with the withdrawal of Miers's nomination, Clement again was thought to be a potential nominee until the nomination of federal judge Samuel Alito
Samuel Alito
Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. is an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and has served on the court since January 31, 2006....
, who was ultimately confirmed.
External links
- Edith Brown Clement's campaign contributions
- The Supreme Court Shortlist including a profile of Clement, from Slate.com, 1 July 2005
- Hearings before the Judiciary Committee, 2001