commemorate

The first black woman to serve as a clerk of the Supreme Court. Two pioneering civil rights litigation lawyers. The judge’s unofficial barber.Arguing woman Rowe v. Wade Just a few years after graduating from law school.

These are one of the lives lost in 2021.

As we did last year, SCOTUSblog recalls and remembers some people who passed away this year. Their lives and work brought them to the Supreme Court of the country. Some are lawyers. Some are not. Everyone has shaped the court in their own way.

Frank Askin (January 8, 1932-July 1, 2021)

When attending Rutgers School of Law in the 1960s, Frank Askin was a student of Ruth Bud Ginsberg. Like his previous professors, Askin later became a pioneering advocate of civil rights and civil liberties.

Askin served as the General Counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union for 36 years, and this is the person who has held this position for the longest time. He also founded the Constitutional Litigation Clinic (now the Constitutional Rights Clinic) at Rutgers University. In 1972, in Laird v Tatum, He represented an anti-war activist in the Supreme Court, who questioned the U.S. Army’s surveillance of conscientious objectors. The court rejected the case on procedural grounds.Seven years later, Askin helped win Delaware v. Plaus, Where the judge believes that unless there is a reasonable suspicion of a crime, the police are not allowed to stop in traffic to check the driver’s license and registration.

Askin is committed to solving a range of other issues, including the right of protesters to distribute flyers in shopping malls and the right of homeless people to use public libraries. “For more than 50 years,” the ACLU of New Jersey wrote in a statement. tribute, “Frank Askin dedicated everything in his heart to the principles of freedom, equality, fairness, and personal freedom.”

Raymond Joseph Billeaud (May 2, 1964-October 4, 2021)

In the 22 years before his death, Raymond Joseph Billeau had been an officer of the Supreme Court Police, the federal law enforcement agency responsible for protecting courts and judges. He is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who served in the Gulf War. He also served in the US Presidential Guard.

After Billow died in October, procession The Supreme Court was held outside in his name. Law enforcement officers lined up at No. 1 First Street to pay their respects.

Ramsey Clark (December 18, 1927-April 9, 2021)

In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Ramsey Clark, a lawyer who had held various senior positions in the Department of Justice, as his Attorney General. This action resulted in Clark’s father, Judge Tom Clark, retiring after 18 years in office to avoid conflicts of interest in cases involving the federal government. The shrewd Johnson might have foreseen this result-he hoped that there would be a vacancy in the Supreme Court so that he could nominate Thurgood Marshall, who was soon recognized as the first black justice.

The young Clark has an influential career by his own strength. As the attorney general, he ordered a moratorium on the federal death penalty, helped draft the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act, and refused to enforce the provisions of the federal law involving criminal suspects’ confessions because he believed it undermined the Supreme Court’s 1966 ruling. Miranda v. ArizonaAfter serving as the attorney general, he has been engaged in private practice for a long time, including debating on behalf of a distributor of nude magazines in the United States. Rosenbloom v. Metromedia Inc., An important First Amendment case concerning the standard of proof required for defamation litigation.

Diego Dambrosio (April 8, 1934-October 22, 2021)

In 1965, four years after immigrating from Italy, Diego D’Ambrosio opened a hair salon and soon became an institution in Washington, DC. For more than 50 years, Dan Brosio has cut hair for the president, ambassador, and Supreme Court judge. His son Fabrizio called him “Unofficial Barber of the Supreme Court. “

His regular visitors include Chief Justice Warren Berg, Chief Justice William Remquist and Justice Samuel Alito. Rehnquist invited him to participate in an oral argument, and then sent him a copy of his opinion. After Dan Brosio’s death earlier this year, Alito remembered him affectionately. “He is a cheerful, friendly, kind and generous person,” He told Tony Mauro of the National Law Journal“From English to Italian to Spanish, he did not hesitate to switch. He obviously loves his job, enjoys the friendship of customers from all walks of life, and works tirelessly. Even after he fell and hurt his hip, He still uses a walker to continue working—he still has a big smile on his face.”

Douglas Huron (December 28, 1945-June 7, 2021)

As a government lawyer and private practice lawyer, Douglas Huron has defended workers throughout his legal career.He represented the plaintiff in important litigations involving employers’ racial or gender bias claims, including PricewaterhouseCoopers v. HopkinsIn this case, Ann Hopkins was refused promotion because she was considered “aggressive” and “too manly.” The Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that the company’s actions violated Chapter 7 of the Civil Rights Act. This is the first time that the court has admitted that gender stereotypes are illegal sex discrimination.

Huron’s influence extends beyond his work as a litigation lawyer. During President Jimmy Carter’s administration, Huron was a White House adviser responsible for appointing female and minority candidates as federal judges. Huron was praised for recommending Ruth Bader Ginsburg to fill the seat of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Carter appointed Ginsberg to the seat, and 13 years later, President Bill Clinton promoted her to the Supreme Court.

Neil Sheehan (October 27, 1936-January 7, 2021)

In 1971, as the US military fell into the Vietnam War, Defense Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg decided to leak Pentagon documents, which is the secret history of the government’s involvement in the Vietnam War. He copied most of the report and provided it to New York Times reporter Neil Sheen, who began publishing a series of damn articles.

The government obtained a court order prohibiting Sheehan from continuing to publish the material. He and the legal team of The New York Times (and the Washington Post, which also received some Pentagon documents) quickly appealed, and the case was quickly appealed to the Supreme Court. June 30, 1971—17 days after Sheehan published his first article—the judge was 6-3 New York Times v. United States Sheehan has the First Amendment right to continue to publish confidential materials. The ruling limits the circumstances under which the government can obtain so-called advance restrictions on publication, and is one of the most important First Amendment decisions in history.

Celina Baez Sotomayor (June 2, 1927-July 25, 2021)

Celina Baez Sotomayor was born in Puerto Rico, orphaned at the age of 9, and moved to New York during World War II. Her first husband, Juan Luis Sotomayor, died in 1964, leaving her as a single mother to raise two children in a housing project in the Bronx. She often works two jobs, learns to be a registered nurse at night, and buys the only set of encyclopedias nearby for her children.

Her son became a doctor. Her daughter became the first Latino Supreme Court judge. In 2009, when President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to appear in court, she Call her mother An “extraordinary person is my lifelong pursuit.”

“I often say that because of her, I have become everything to me,” Sotomayor continued, “and I am only half of her.”

Sarah Widdington (February 5, 1945-December 26, 2021)

In the late 1960s, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee had just graduated from the University of Texas Law School in Austin, when they agreed to represent Norma McCorvey, a homeless pregnant woman seeking an abortion. They directly challenged the Texas law that prohibited abortion at the time and filed a lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court.The case is Rowe v. Wade.

Although he was only 26 years old and had never tried a case, Widdington handled the oral arguments. In fact, she debated the case twice. The first time was in December 1971. But there were only seven judges in the court at the time, because two vacancies were not filled. After confirming the two new judges, the court ordered a renewal of the debate, so Wiedenton took the stage again in October 1972.

Three months later, the court issued a landmark 7-2 ruling, establishing the constitutional right to obtain an abortion. Widdington continues to have a long and varied career. She was elected to the Texas State Assembly, served in the Carter government, and taught gender-based discrimination courses. But she never defended another Supreme Court case.Nearly 50 years after her iconic victory, 25 days before her death, the court heard Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Mississippi State and its supporters request the court to overturn the case roe.

Karen Hastie Williams (September 30, 1944-July 7, 2021)

Breaking down barriers is the DNA of Karen Hasty Williams. Her father, William Hastie, was the first black man to serve as a federal judge. Williams also became a lawyer, and when Justice Thurgood Marshall chose her as a legal assistant in 1974, she became the first black woman to serve as a clerk of the Supreme Court.

After taking office, she served as the chief legal counsel of the Senate Budget Committee, as an administrator of the Office of Management and Budget, helped increase government contracts with minority companies, and eventually entered private practice as a corporate governance expert. She became the first woman and the first partner of color at Crowell & Moring, an elite Washington law firm.

Williams has also served on the boards of many companies and non-profit organizations. In 2005, she became the first chairman of the independent board of directors of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Steve York (July 1, 1943-August 19, 2021)

Steve York is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who has directed many films on public affairs, including films on the Supreme Court. His two-part series, This noble court, Aired on PBS in 1988. The first part traces the history of the court and its landmark decisions. The second part focuses on a case, Edwards v. Aguilard, In which the court overturned a Louisiana law that requires any public school that teaches evolution to also teach creationism. York’s film is followed up from the case to the Supreme Court to the final judgment. He was given an unprecedented opportunity to enter the judge’s room. The film included interviews with some judges and rare scenes of judges talking to each other and their legal assistants.

Eight years later This noble court After the broadcast, the court asked York to make another film about the agency. The 30-minute movie he created has been broadcast in the court visitor center for more than ten years.