Harold Herman Greene was a federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia

United States District Court for the District of Columbia

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia is a federal district court. Appeals from the District are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a...

. He was nominated by President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

 in 1978.

Early life, education, and career

Greene was born Heinz Grünhaus in Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, and when he was 20, his family fled the Nazi regime

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 to Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, Vichy France

Vichy France

Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, and finally the United States in 1943, during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Greene enlisted in the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 and interrogated German prisoners for military intelligence. He received his BA in 1949 from George Washington University

George Washington University

The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...

 and law degree in 1952 from George Washington University Law School. From 1952 to 1953, Greene clerked for Bennett Champ Clark

Bennett Champ Clark

Joel Bennett Clark , better known as Bennett Champ Clark, was a Democratic United States Senator from Missouri from 1933 until 1945, and was later a United States federal judge.-Biography:...

, a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Appeals from the D.C. Circuit, as with all the U.S. Courts of Appeals, are heard on a...

. Next, Greene was assistant US attorney for Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 until 1957 and chief of appeals research for the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division

United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division

The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is the institution within the federal government responsible for enforcing federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin. The Division was established on December 9, 1957, by...

 from 1957 to 1965. At the Justice Department, Greene helped create the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...

 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Greene was a judge for D.C. regional courts: judge for the Court of General Sessions from 1956 to 1966, chief judge for that court until 1971, and chief judge for the D.C. Superior Court from 1971 to 1978.

Nomination

President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

 appointed Greene to a seat vacated by John J. Sirica; 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...

 confirmed Greene on May 17, 1978, and Greene was commissioned on May 19, 1978.

Notable cases

Judge Greene presided over United States v. AT&T

United States v. AT&T

United States v. AT&T was the antitrust case in the United States that led to the 1984 Bell System divestiture, the breakup of the old American Telephone & Telegraph into the new, seven regional Bell operating companies s and the much smaller new AT&T.In the 1970s, the Federal Communications...

, the antitrust suit that broke up the AT&T

AT&T

AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...

 vertical market monopoly on the telecommunications industry in the United States. The case, one of Greene's first after being named to the bench, resulted in the 1982 consent decree between AT&T and the Federal Trade Commission

Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...

. The consent decree, later amended and usually called the modified final judgment (MFJ

Modification of Final Judgment

In United States telecommunication law, Modification of Final Judgment is the August 1982 agreement approved by the court settling United States v. AT&T, a landmark antitrust suit, originally filed on January, 14, 1949 and modifying the previous Final Judgment of January 24, 1956...

), provided for the Bell System divestiture

Bell System divestiture

The Bell System divestiture, or the breakup of AT&T, was initiated by the filing in 1974 by the U.S. Department of Justice of an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T. The case, United States v...

, AT&T's spin off of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs

Regional Bell Operating Company

The Regional Bell Operating Companies are the result of United States v. AT&T, the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the former American Telephone & Telegraph Company . On January 8, 1982, AT&T Corp. settled the suit and agreed to divest its local exchange service operating...

). The conclusion of the case freed AT&T to enter the computer industry, from which it had previously been barred. In 1990, Greene sentenced the 1983 United States Senate bombing

1983 United States Senate bombing

The 1983 U.S. Senate bombing was a bomb explosion at the United States Senate on November 7, 1983. Six members of the "Resistance Conspiracy" were arrested in May 1988 and charged with the bombing, as well as related bombings of Fort McNair and the Washington Navy Yard.On that day, the Senate...

 suspects, Laura Whitehorn

Laura Whitehorn

Laura Jane Whitehorn was born in April 1945 to Lenore and Nathaniel Whitehorn of Brooklyn, New York. As a college student in the 1960s, she organized and participated in civil rights and anti-war movements. as well as involvement in a series of revolutionary bombings and armed robberies...

 and Linda Evans

Linda Evans (U.S. radical)

Linda Sue Evans is an American radical leftist who was convicted for militant activities. Evans was sentenced in 1987 to 40 years in prison for using false identification to buy firearms and for harboring a fugitive in the 1981 Brinks armored truck robbery, in which two police officers and a...

, to prison. Greene assumed senior status on August 6, 1995.

Death

Greene died from a cerebral hemorrhage on January 29, 2000 and was undergoing brain operations at the time. He had a wife, Evelyn, and two children: son Dr. Michael D. Greene and daughter Stephanie Cavagrotti. After his death, the George Washington University Law School created the Harold H. Greene Professor of Law endowed chair in his memory.