Richard S. Arnold
Encyclopedia
Richard Sheppard Arnold (March 26, 1936 – September 23, 2004) was a judge
of the U.S. District Court and then the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Two presidents, Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton
, considered naming Arnold to the United States Supreme Court. Polly Price, a former Arnold law clerk and an Emory University
law professor
who has written a biography
of Arnold, said that the judge will be remembered like the great jurist Learned Hand
: "perhaps the best judge never to serve on the Supreme Court." In May 2002, the U.S. Courthouse in Little Rock
was renamed in Judge Arnold’s honor.
President Jimmy Carter
nominated Arnold, a fellow Democrat
, to the District Court of both the Eastern and Western districts of Arkansas on August 14, 1978. Barely a year later, on December 19, 1979, Carter named Arnold to a new position on the appeals court headquartered in St. Louis
-- a seat to which he previously had very publicly considered nominating law school professor Joan Krauskopf
but eventually opted not to proceed with because of Krauskopf's "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association
. Arnold was confirmed by the United States Senate
on February 20, 1980.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Arnold to the Eighth Circuit on February 20, 1980. Arnold maintained his chambers in Little Rock. He served as Chief Judge of the Eighth Circuit from 1992-1998. He assumed senior status
on April 1, 2001, which allowed him to lighten his workload and to concentrate in detail on fewer cases. During his last twelve years on the court, he served with his younger brother, Judge Morris S. "Buzz" Arnold
, a Republican
appointed by President George Herbert Walker Bush.
, the son of Richard Lewis Arnold, a specialist in public utilities law. All the men on both sides of his family were lawyers. His grandfather, William H. Arnold, Sr., practiced law in Texarkana and was a circuit judge and an Arkansas Bar Association
president. Arnold's uncle, William H. Arnold, Jr. (died 1977), was a Rhodes Scholar and the leading expert on oil
and gas
in Arkansas.
Arnold's maternal grandfather was Democratic U.S. Senator Morris Sheppard
(1875–1941) of Texas
, who served from 1913 until his death in office. Morris Sheppard was also the grandfather of former U.S. Senator Connie Mack, III
(born 1940), a Florida
Republican banker. Arnold said that he "never really considered being anything else but a lawyer."
Arnold completed the Classical Studies program at Phillips Exeter Academy
in New Hampshire
in 1953. He then attended Yale University
in New Haven, Connecticut
, where he majored in Latin
and Greek
, was president of the Yale Debating Association, a member of the Elizabethan Club, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated summa cum laude first in his class in 1957. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School
in 1960, again graduating first in his class.
Arnold married the former Gale Hussman of Camden in 1958, but the marriage ended in divorce
in 1975. Gale was the daughter of the Arkansas publisher and mass media
mogul Walter E. Hussman, Sr.
, the granddaughter of another publisher, Clyde E. Palmer
, and the sister of a third, Walter E. Hussman, Jr.
of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
. Arnold had two daughters by Gale: Janet Sheppard Arnold Hart of San Carlos, California
, and Lydia Palmer Arnold Turnipseed of Syracuse, New York
. Both daughters went on to become lawyers. Ms. Turnipseed is an Adjunct Professor at Syracuse University College of Law
. In 1979, he married the former Kay Kelley, who survived him.
Arnold was also general counsel for his first father-in-law's Palmer Media Group, which in 1973 became WEHCO Media, Inc., the corporate owner of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He provided advice on libel law, contracts for new presses, and cable television
franchise
renewals.
, from 1960-1961. He once told a friend that while he admired Brennan, he disagreed with many of Brennan's interpretations of the United States Constitution
. Arnold joined the law practice of Covington & Burling
in Washington, D.C.
, from 1961-1964. He also taught parttime at the University of Virginia Law School. He then became a partner in his family-owned Arnold & Arnold firm in Texarkana, Arkansas
, from 1964-1973. He was a delegate to the seventh Arkansas Constitutional Convention from 1969-1970.
. He lost in 1966 to David Hampton Pryor
of Camden
for the Fourth Congressional District seat vacated by then newly-appointed U.S. District Judge Oren Harris
. Pryor then won the House seat in the general election
against the Republican
A. Lynn Lowe
, a Texarkana farmer also born in 1936. In 1968, Arnold was a delegate to the tumultuous Democratic National Convention
, which met in Chicago
to assemble the Humphrey
-Muskie
ticket, the first Democratic team to lose the electoral votes of Arkansas since Reconstruction. Arnold was beaten again in the 1972 congressional primary by then Attorney General
Raymond Hoyt "Ray" Thornton, Jr.
, of Sheridan
, the seat of Grant County.
In 1973, Arnold became legislative secretary to Governor
Dale Leon Bumpers
in Little Rock. In 1975, he became legislative assistant to newly-elected U.S. Senator Bumpers in Washington. He remained on Bumpers's staff until 1978.
and an old-fashioned Southern gentleman." He befriended a young Bill Clinton, who later as President, according to Clinton's autobiography
"My Life", would have named Arnold to the Supreme Court in 1994 had not the jurist been long diagnosed with lymphoma
. Jeffrey Toobin also wrote in "The Nine" (at p. 79) of "Clinton ... weeping when he" told Arnold "he wasn't going to appoint him" because of Arnold's health.
Justice Robert L. Brown of the Arkansas Supreme Court
, another long-time friend, said that he knew no one "who is held in higher esteem. As we all know, he should’ve been appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. I’m sorry that did not happen. He was the man for the job."
Arnold had first been suggested for the seat in 1970 when former opponent Pryor, who later described himself as a "very, very close friend" of Arnold's, wrote a letter to President Nixon, who was looking for a Southerner to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. Nixon went with the failed Harrold Carswell nomination instead.
firm in St. Louis called him "the best judge I ever saw -- brilliant mind and yet as pragmatic and as down to earth a man as you would ever find. And yet, as good a judge as he was, he was an even better person -- modest, unassuming, a man of principle and conviction, yet always open-minded and willing to listen." One of Arnold's former law clerks described him as "a brilliant attorney with a self-effacing kindness and affability unlike any I have ever seen."
Arnold was a member of a plethora of professional and civic associations. He won many honors, including the Environmental Law Institute
Award in 1996, the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award in 1999, and the Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Award, named for the former U.S. Supreme Court justice from Virginia who was appointed by President Nixon in 1971 to replace Justice Hugo L. Black.
The Eighth Circuit hears appeals from federal cases in Arkansas, Iowa
, Missouri
, Nebraska
, North Dakota
, South Dakota
, and Minnesota
. In his court tenure, Arnold penned approximately seven hundred written opinions which displayed a mastery of the written word and were considered well-reasoned and focused. Arnold also wrote legal articles for law reviews and journals. He wrote in a simple style so that laymen too could understand his findings.
In "A Tribute to Chief Judge Richard S. Arnold" in the Minnesota Law Review (Vol. 78, No. 1, 1993), Justice Brennan and Judge Patricia M. Wald were among the jurists who hailed Arnold's judicial record of accomplishment.
He was integral to the three-judge panel that upheld a lower court ruling which released the Little Rock School District from more than forty years of federal court supervision of its desegregation
efforts. Arnold wrote the 22-page opinion.
In one of his most widely-known cases, Arnold ruled that the Jaycees, or the Junior Chamber of Commerce, could exclude women as members. He was overturned by the Supreme Court.
Other significant decisions included a strongly worded 1985 opinion in a school desegregation case in which he and other judges on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis held that consolidation was not the answer to de facto segregation
in Pulaski County public schools.
Another of Arnold’s prominent rulings was a landmark 1989 decision that he authored for a three-judge panel requiring the Arkansas Board of Apportionment to create super-majority districts to ensure that voters in the Mississippi Delta
would elect some African American
state legislators. In 1990, when Bill Clinton won his last term as governor, Arkansas voters set precedent by electing blacks to one position in the Arkansas State Senate and ten of the one hundred seats in the Arkansas House of Representatives
.
Arnold was considered neither liberal nor conservative on the bench, with his decisionmaking stemming from the facts of the case and not ideology. However, he was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union
. He worked in one case to secure religious liberties for a Black Muslim in prison
. Judge Morris Arnold said that his older brother had a "sense of balance and fairness. He never had an apparent ideological ax to grind."
Arnold was not a fan of unpublished opinions
. He wrote in Anastasoff v. United States that unpublished opinions were still precedent that had to be relied on by other judges.
in Rochester, Minnesota
. Though he had been ill prior to his death, he had remained active on the bench.
Morris Arnold said that what stood out about his brother was the "consistently high-quality work he has done. He was second to none in the country. I mean that literally."
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
described Arnold as "a brilliant, brilliant man. . . a model of humility and self-deprecation." Another justice, Antonin Scalia
of Virginia, said that Arnold's "carefully reasoned and beautifully written opinions were models of the art of judging. He has been a friend of mine since the days when he finished ahead of me (and first in the class) at Harvard Law School."
Services for Judge Arnold were held in the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral on West 17th Street in Little Rock. There was a standing-room-only throng in the sanctuary, which seats five hundred.
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
of the U.S. District Court and then the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Two presidents, Richard M. Nixon and 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...
, considered naming Arnold to the United States Supreme Court. Polly Price, a former Arnold law clerk and an Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
law professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
who has written a biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of Arnold, said that the judge will be remembered like the great jurist Learned Hand
Learned Hand
Billings Learned Hand was a United States judge and judicial philosopher. He served on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and later the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit...
: "perhaps the best judge never to serve on the Supreme Court." In May 2002, the U.S. Courthouse in Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
was renamed in Judge Arnold’s honor.
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...
nominated Arnold, a fellow Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, to the District Court of both the Eastern and Western districts of Arkansas on August 14, 1978. Barely a year later, on December 19, 1979, Carter named Arnold to a new position on the appeals court headquartered in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
-- a seat to which he previously had very publicly considered nominating law school professor Joan Krauskopf
Joan Krauskopf
Joan Miday Krauskopf is an American law professor who once was considered as a federal judicial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.- Early life and education :...
but eventually opted not to proceed with because of Krauskopf's "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
. Arnold was confirmed by 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...
on February 20, 1980.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Arnold to the Eighth Circuit on February 20, 1980. Arnold maintained his chambers in Little Rock. He served as Chief Judge of the Eighth Circuit from 1992-1998. He 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...
on April 1, 2001, which allowed him to lighten his workload and to concentrate in detail on fewer cases. During his last twelve years on the court, he served with his younger brother, Judge Morris S. "Buzz" Arnold
Morris S. Arnold
Morris Sheppard "Buzz" Arnold is a senior-status jurist of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. A Republican, he was appointed to the appeals court by U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush. His tenure began on June 1, 1992. For his first twelve years, until 2004, he...
, a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
appointed by President George Herbert Walker Bush.
Early years, family, education
Arnold was born in Texarkana, TexasTexarkana, Texas
Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States. It effectively functions as one half of a city which crosses a state line — the other half, the city of Texarkana, Arkansas, lies on the other side of State Line Avenue...
, the son of Richard Lewis Arnold, a specialist in public utilities law. All the men on both sides of his family were lawyers. His grandfather, William H. Arnold, Sr., practiced law in Texarkana and was a circuit judge and an Arkansas Bar Association
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...
president. Arnold's uncle, William H. Arnold, Jr. (died 1977), was a Rhodes Scholar and the leading expert on oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
and gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
in Arkansas.
Arnold's maternal grandfather was Democratic U.S. Senator Morris Sheppard
Morris Sheppard
John Morris Sheppard was a Democratic United States Congressman and United States Senator from Texas. He authored the Eighteenth Amendment and introduced it in the Senate, so that he is referred to as "the father of national Prohibition."-Biography:John Morris Sheppard was born in Morris County...
(1875–1941) of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, who served from 1913 until his death in office. Morris Sheppard was also the grandfather of former U.S. Senator Connie Mack, III
Connie Mack III
Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy III , popularly known as Connie Mack, is a former Republican politician. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida from 1983 to 1989 and then as a Senator from 1989 to 2001. He served as chairman of the Senate Republican...
(born 1940), a Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
Republican banker. Arnold said that he "never really considered being anything else but a lawyer."
Arnold completed the Classical Studies program at Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
in 1953. He then attended Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, where he majored in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, was president of the Yale Debating Association, a member of the Elizabethan Club, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated summa cum laude first in his class in 1957. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
in 1960, again graduating first in his class.
Arnold married the former Gale Hussman of Camden in 1958, but the marriage ended in divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
in 1975. Gale was the daughter of the Arkansas publisher and mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
mogul Walter E. Hussman, Sr.
Walter E. Hussman, Sr.
Walter Edward Hussman, Sr. , was a mass media magnate from Camden, Arkansas, whose holdings included six daily newspapers in Arkansas, several radio and television stations, including the NBC outlet KTAL-TV in Texarkana, Texas, and seventeen cable systems in four states.-Early years, education,...
, the granddaughter of another publisher, Clyde E. Palmer
Clyde E. Palmer
Clyde Eber Palmer was the owner of a chain of newspapers and radio stations and a television outlet covering southwestern Arkansas and part of northeastern Texas during the early to middle 20th century. He operated his media conglomerate from Texarkana, Texas.- Early years :Palmer was born to Mr....
, and the sister of a third, Walter E. Hussman, Jr.
Walter E. Hussman, Jr.
Walter E. Hussman, Jr. , is a third-generation newspaper publisher and chief executive officer of a mass media conglomerate known as WEHCO Media, Inc...
of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell...
. Arnold had two daughters by Gale: Janet Sheppard Arnold Hart of San Carlos, California
San Carlos, California
San Carlos is a city in San Mateo County, California, USA on the San Francisco Peninsula, about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. It is an affluent small residential suburb located between Belmont to the north and Redwood City to the south. San Carlos' ZIP code is 94070, and it is within...
, and Lydia Palmer Arnold Turnipseed of Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
. Both daughters went on to become lawyers. Ms. Turnipseed is an Adjunct Professor at Syracuse University College of Law
Syracuse University College of Law
Syracuse University College of Law , founded in 1895, is a Juris Doctor degree-granting law school of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. It is one of only four law schools in Upstate New York Syracuse University College of Law (SUCOL), founded in 1895, is a Juris Doctor degree-granting law...
. In 1979, he married the former Kay Kelley, who survived him.
Arnold was also general counsel for his first father-in-law's Palmer Media Group, which in 1973 became WEHCO Media, Inc., the corporate owner of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He provided advice on libel law, contracts for new presses, and cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
franchise
Exclusive right
In Anglo-Saxon law, an exclusive right is a de facto, non-tangible prerogative existing in law to perform an action or acquire a benefit and to permit or deny others the right to perform the same action or to acquire the same benefit. A "prerogative" is in effect an exclusive right...
renewals.
Lawyer in Washington and Texarkana
Arnold clerked for Supreme Court Justice William BrennanWilliam J. Brennan, Jr.
William Joseph Brennan, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1956 to 1990...
, from 1960-1961. He once told a friend that while he admired Brennan, he disagreed with many of Brennan's interpretations of the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
. Arnold joined the law practice of Covington & Burling
Covington & Burling
Covington & Burling LLP is an international law firm with offices in Beijing, Brussels, London, New York, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, San Diego, and Washington, DC. The firm advises multinational corporations on significant transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters...
in 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....
, from 1961-1964. He also taught parttime at the University of Virginia Law School. He then became a partner in his family-owned Arnold & Arnold firm in Texarkana, Arkansas
Texarkana, Arkansas
As of the census of 2000, there were 26,448 people, 10,384 households, and 7,040 families residing in the city. The population density was 830.5 people per square mile . There were 11,721 housing units at an average density of 368.1 per square mile...
, from 1964-1973. He was a delegate to the seventh Arkansas Constitutional Convention from 1969-1970.
Political campaigns
Twice he ran unsuccessfully in the critical Democratic primary for the United States House of RepresentativesUnited States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. He lost in 1966 to David Hampton Pryor
David Pryor
David Hampton Pryor is a former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senator from the State of Arkansas. Pryor also served as 39th Governor of Arkansas from 1975 to 1979 and was a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1960 to 1966...
of Camden
Camden, Arkansas
Camden is a city in and the county seat of Ouachita County in the southern part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Long an area of American Indians villages, the French also made a permanent settlement here because of its advantageous location above the Ouachita River. According to 2007 Census...
for the Fourth Congressional District seat vacated by then newly-appointed U.S. District Judge Oren Harris
Oren Harris
Oren Harris was a U.S. Representative and United States District Court Judge from Arkansas.-Background:Born in Belton, Arkansas, Harris attended public schools in Prescott, Arkansas....
. Pryor then won the House seat in the general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
against the Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
A. Lynn Lowe
Lynn Lowe
Aylmer Lynn Lowe, known as A. Lynn Lowe , was a farmer and politician from Garland in Miller County in southwestern Arkansas, who was a major figure in the Arkansas Republican Party...
, a Texarkana farmer also born in 1936. In 1968, Arnold was a delegate to the tumultuous Democratic National Convention
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...
, which met in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
to assemble the Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
-Muskie
Edmund Muskie
Edmund Sixtus "Ed" Muskie was an American politician from Rumford, Maine. He served as Governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, as a member of the United States Senate from 1959 to 1980, and as Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981...
ticket, the first Democratic team to lose the electoral votes of Arkansas since Reconstruction. Arnold was beaten again in the 1972 congressional primary by then Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
Raymond Hoyt "Ray" Thornton, Jr.
Ray Thornton
Raymond Hoyt "Ray" Thornton, Jr. is a former U.S. Representative from the US state of Arkansas.Thornton earned a degree in political science from Yale University and, later, a law degree from the University of Arkansas...
, of Sheridan
Sheridan, Arkansas
Sheridan is the largest city and county seat in Grant County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 3,872 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area. .-History:Robert W...
, the seat of Grant County.
In 1973, Arnold became legislative secretary to Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
Dale Leon Bumpers
Dale Bumpers
Dale Leon Bumpers is an American politician who served as the 38th Governor of Arkansas from 1971 to 1975; and then in the United States Senate from 1975 until his retirement in January 1999. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Senator Bumpers is currently counsel at the Washington, D.C...
in Little Rock. In 1975, he became legislative assistant to newly-elected U.S. Senator Bumpers in Washington. He remained on Bumpers's staff until 1978.
Consideration for the Supreme Court
Arnold was considered "a principled liberalLiberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
and an old-fashioned Southern gentleman." He befriended a young Bill Clinton, who later as President, according to Clinton's autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
"My Life", would have named Arnold to the Supreme Court in 1994 had not the jurist been long diagnosed with lymphoma
Lymphoma
Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system. Typically, lymphomas present as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. Treatment might involve chemotherapy and in some cases radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation, and can be curable depending on the histology, type, and stage...
. Jeffrey Toobin also wrote in "The Nine" (at p. 79) of "Clinton ... weeping when he" told Arnold "he wasn't going to appoint him" because of Arnold's health.
Justice Robert L. Brown of the Arkansas Supreme Court
Arkansas Supreme Court
The Arkansas Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Since 1925, it has consisted of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices, and at times Special Justices are called upon in the absence of a regular justice...
, another long-time friend, said that he knew no one "who is held in higher esteem. As we all know, he should’ve been appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. I’m sorry that did not happen. He was the man for the job."
Arnold had first been suggested for the seat in 1970 when former opponent Pryor, who later described himself as a "very, very close friend" of Arnold's, wrote a letter to President Nixon, who was looking for a Southerner to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. Nixon went with the failed Harrold Carswell nomination instead.
Arnold's judicial temperament
Attorney Mark Arnold (not related to Judge Arnold) of the Husch Blackwell SandersHusch Blackwell Sanders
Husch Blackwell LLP is a litigation and business services law firm with approximately 625 attorneys in offices in 14 cities, stretching from Washington, D.C. to Phoenix, Arizona and London. The firm was formed in 2008 as a combination of two regional law firms, Blackwell Sanders LLP and Husch &...
firm in St. Louis called him "the best judge I ever saw -- brilliant mind and yet as pragmatic and as down to earth a man as you would ever find. And yet, as good a judge as he was, he was an even better person -- modest, unassuming, a man of principle and conviction, yet always open-minded and willing to listen." One of Arnold's former law clerks described him as "a brilliant attorney with a self-effacing kindness and affability unlike any I have ever seen."
Arnold was a member of a plethora of professional and civic associations. He won many honors, including the Environmental Law Institute
Environmental Law Institute
The Environmental Law Institute is a non-profit, non-advocacy environmental group, which specializes in producing publications and research that target legal practitioners, business leaders, land managers, land use planners, environmentalists, journalists, and lawmakers...
Award in 1996, the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award in 1999, and the Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Award, named for the former U.S. Supreme Court justice from Virginia who was appointed by President Nixon in 1971 to replace Justice Hugo L. Black.
The Eighth Circuit hears appeals from federal cases in Arkansas, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
, South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
, and Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. In his court tenure, Arnold penned approximately seven hundred written opinions which displayed a mastery of the written word and were considered well-reasoned and focused. Arnold also wrote legal articles for law reviews and journals. He wrote in a simple style so that laymen too could understand his findings.
In "A Tribute to Chief Judge Richard S. Arnold" in the Minnesota Law Review (Vol. 78, No. 1, 1993), Justice Brennan and Judge Patricia M. Wald were among the jurists who hailed Arnold's judicial record of accomplishment.
Key legal cases
Arnold participated in several noteworthy cases.He was integral to the three-judge panel that upheld a lower court ruling which released the Little Rock School District from more than forty years of federal court supervision of its desegregation
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
efforts. Arnold wrote the 22-page opinion.
In one of his most widely-known cases, Arnold ruled that the Jaycees, or the Junior Chamber of Commerce, could exclude women as members. He was overturned by the Supreme Court.
Other significant decisions included a strongly worded 1985 opinion in a school desegregation case in which he and other judges on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis held that consolidation was not the answer to de facto segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
in Pulaski County public schools.
Another of Arnold’s prominent rulings was a landmark 1989 decision that he authored for a three-judge panel requiring the Arkansas Board of Apportionment to create super-majority districts to ensure that voters in the Mississippi Delta
Mississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history...
would elect some African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
state legislators. In 1990, when Bill Clinton won his last term as governor, Arkansas voters set precedent by electing blacks to one position in the Arkansas State Senate and ten of the one hundred seats in the Arkansas House of Representatives
Arkansas House of Representatives
The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The House is composed of 100 members elected from an equal amount of constituencies across the state. Each district has an average population of 26,734...
.
Arnold was considered neither liberal nor conservative on the bench, with his decisionmaking stemming from the facts of the case and not ideology. However, he was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
. He worked in one case to secure religious liberties for a Black Muslim in prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
. Judge Morris Arnold said that his older brother had a "sense of balance and fairness. He never had an apparent ideological ax to grind."
Arnold was not a fan of unpublished opinions
Non-publication
Non-publication of opinions, or Unpublished opinions, are those decisions of courts that are not available for citation as precedent because the judges making the opinion deem the case as having less precedential value....
. He wrote in Anastasoff v. United States that unpublished opinions were still precedent that had to be relied on by other judges.
Arnold's legacy
Arnold, who was known for his trademark bow ties, died from an infection which developed during treatment for lymphoma at the Rochester Methodist HospitalHospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
in Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on both banks of the Zumbro River, The city has a population of 106,769 according to the 2010 United States Census, making it Minnesota's third-largest city and the largest outside of the...
. Though he had been ill prior to his death, he had remained active on the bench.
Morris Arnold said that what stood out about his brother was the "consistently high-quality work he has done. He was second to none in the country. I mean that literally."
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court....
described Arnold as "a brilliant, brilliant man. . . a model of humility and self-deprecation." Another justice, Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As the longest-serving justice on the Court, Scalia is the Senior Associate Justice...
of Virginia, said that Arnold's "carefully reasoned and beautifully written opinions were models of the art of judging. He has been a friend of mine since the days when he finished ahead of me (and first in the class) at Harvard Law School."
Services for Judge Arnold were held in the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral on West 17th Street in Little Rock. There was a standing-room-only throng in the sanctuary, which seats five hundred.
See also
- List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
- Bill Clinton Supreme Court candidatesBill Clinton Supreme Court candidatesPresident Bill Clinton made two appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States, both during his first term.On March 19, 1993, Associate Justice Byron White announced his retirement , effective at the end of the Supreme Court's 1992-1993 term...