Featured Member of the Judicial Branch for Prayer

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg was born in March 1933 in Brooklyn, New York. She attended James Madison High School, and graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. After receiving that degree she enrolled at Harvard Law School, where she was one of only nine women in a class of more than five hundred. She later transferred to Columbia Law School where she earned her Bachelor of Laws degree. She has since been awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Willamette University and Princeton University.

Justice Ginsburg was a professor of law at Rutgers University for nine years, and then she taught at Columbia, where she became the first tenured woman professor. She co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, and a year later became the ACLU’s General Counsel.

President Jimmy Carter appointed Ginsburg to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and she served there for 13 years until joining the Supreme Court. It was President Bill Clinton who nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and within a few months she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In 2009, Forbes magazine named her among the 100 Most Powerful Women.

Justice Ginsburg is the widow of the late Martin Ginsburg who died in 2010. They have two children. She is Jewish.

IN THE NEWS: On her visit to Egypt, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is scheduled to meet with senior court officials, the head of the High Elections Commission and Egypt’s Grand Muffti. Her visit follows Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner who went to Cairo last week. The visits coincide with the opening of Egypt’s Parliament and the commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the start of the Egyptian Revolution. The Muslim Brotherhood group overwhelmingly won the parliamentary election.

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Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Justice James Hannah, Chief Justice, Arkansas Supreme Court

James “Jim” Hannah received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Arkansas, from which he also graduated with a juris doctor.

He worked as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Woodruff County, and as the City Attorney for a number of Arkansas cities including Augusta, Bradford and Searcy. He also spent a period of time in the private practice of law.

In 1976, Hannah became the White County Juvenile Judge having implemented the juvenile program there, later advancing to the Chancery / Probate Judge of the 17^th Judicial Circuit. He entered the Arkansas Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in 2001 and since 2004 has held the position of Chief Justice.

He was faculty advisor for the National Judicial College, and an instructor at Harding University. He has been active in youth basketball and baseball leagues.

Hannah is married to Pat Johnson Hannah. They have five children, 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He is an elder with the First Presbyterian Church of Searcy.

IN THE NEWS: “The authority to decide who may testify and under what conditions is a procedural matter solely within the providence of the courts,” said Chief Justice Hannah in declaring another portion of the tort reform act passed by the Arkansas Legislature. Previously, the court had ruled that limiting punitive damages in cases involving injury is unconstitutional. Whether the case will be appealed is uncertain, but tort reform will certainly be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in coming years.

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Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. was born in April 1950 in Trenton, New Jersey, to Italian American parents. Alito grew up in Hamilton Township, New Jersey where he attended high school. He graduated from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs with a B.A. in 1972. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1975.

During his senior year at Princeton, Alito studied in Italy, where he wrote his thesis on the Italian legal system. His lofty yearbook aspirations recorded a hope to “eventually warm a seat on the Supreme Court.”

He served as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Signal Corps after his graduation and was on active duty from September to December 1975, while attending the Officer Basic Course for Signal Corp at Fort Gordon, Georgia. The remainder of his time in the Army was served in the inactive Reserve. He had the rank of Captain when he received an Honorable Discharge in 1980.

During 1977-1981, Alito was Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, where he prosecuted many cases that involved drug trafficking and organized crime. From 1981 to 1985, he was assistant to the U. S. Solicitor General. He argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court for the federal government during his tenure there.

Alito was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and was confirmed by unanimous consent in April 1990. When Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court, President George W. Bush nominated Alito to her seat on the Bench. The hearings were somewhat contentious but he was ultimately confirmed as the 110^th justice and the second Italian American.

Alito is the eleventh Roman Catholic to serve on the Supreme Court. He is generally considered to be a conservative jurist with a libertarian streak, particularly on First Amendment issues related to religious affairs. He is married to Martha.

IN THE NEWS: Justices across the ideological spectrum appeared troubled by the EPA’s position that an Idaho couple do not have the right to go to court to challenge the agency’s wetlands decision. “If you related the facts of this case … to an ordinary homeowner, don’t you think most ordinary homeowners would say this kind of thing can’t happen in the United States?” Justice Alito asked the Deputy Solicitor General who was representing the EPA. The couple wanted to build a home on land near an Idaho lake, but after days of bringing in fill dirt and preparing for construction, officials from the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ordered the activity stopped and said they suspected the land contained wetlands. The question for the justices is whether the couple had the right to content the agency’s contention that their land contained wetlands. The EPA has said the land must be restored as wetlands, and failure to comply could cost as much as $75,000 a day in fines.

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Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Justice Debra Stephens, Supreme Court of Washington

Debra Lee Stephens nee Williams, born in 1965, grew up in Spokane, Washington, graduating from West Valley High School, where she was student body president and a national Century Leader. She attended Gonzaga University on a debate scholarship, and later graduated from Gonzaga University School of Law.

Stephens taught speech communications and coached the debate team at Spokane Falls Community College. She was Assistant Dean of ‘Admissions at Gonzaga University for four years. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Gonzaga University School of Law.

Judge Stephens spent some time in private practice of law, focused on appellate practice. She was appointed as a judge for the Washington Court of Appeals, and later elected to that position. She was later appointed to the Washington State Supreme Court, taking office in January 2008.

Justice Stephens and her husband, Craig, have two children. She is a Presbyterian.

IN THE NEWS: In a 55-page opinion, members of the Washington Supreme Court said that the judiciary would keep an eye on Washington lawmakers to make sure they fully implement education reforms by 2018. “The court cannot idly stand by as the legislature makes unfulfilled promises for reform,” Justice Debra Stephens wrote in the majority opinion. She notes that deadlines for reforms keep getting moved back and if left up to the legislature, the court expects the delays would continue. The court made it clear that the legislature has to pay for education first, before any other state program or financial obligation.

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Thursday, January 5th, 2012

Judge Lewis D. Kowal, Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings

Lewis D. Kowal received his undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona State University and his Juris Doctorate from Pace University School of Law. He was admitted to practice law in both New York and Arizona.

He prosecuted cases for the New York State Insurance Department and worked in personal injury, commercial, administrative and general practice law firms. He interned in the New York State Attorney General’s Office and clerked at the Arizona State Attorney General’s Office dealing with administrative law matters.

Judge Kowal completed the Advanced Course of Administrative Law sponsored by the National Judicial College. He has served as a member of an ad-hoc committee for the Arizona Liquor Board in which he assisted in revamping the Board’s liquor rules. Immediately prior to becoming a member of the Office of Administrative Hearings, he was the Chief Administration Law Judge for the Arizona Department of Insurance.

He has been an Administrative Law Judge with the Office of Administrative Hearings since the agency’s inception in January 1996, where he presides over matters including licensing and disciplinary matters for state agencies.

IN THE NEWS: Judge Lewis D. Kowal affirmed a prior decision by the state schools chief that the Tucson Unified School District’s program on Mexican-American ethnic studies violates a new law prohibiting divisive ethnic-studies classes. That state superintendent of public instruction had previously deemed the program in violation in June. Among other things, the law bans classes primarily designed for a particular ethnic group or that “promote resentment toward a race or class of people.” The programs opponents have said that the class framed historical events in racial terms, and that the teachers promoted “groupthink” and victimhood. School officials were not reached for comment.

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Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Judge Harry Pregerson, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Harry Pregerson was born in October 1923 in Los Angeles, California. He is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law. Judge Pregerson was also a U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant in World War II, during which time he was severely wounded in the Battle of Okinawa.

He served twelve years as a Judge of the District Court for the Central District of California. In 1979 he was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to a seat on the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and following his Senate confirmation has held that position since.

He is an enthusiastic advocate for veterans’ interests and has worked on behalf of homeless vets. He has also been honored by the Salvation Army for his work in helping homeless families.

He is married to Bernardine Pregerson. His son, Dean D. Pregerson is a federal judge for the Central District of California.

IN THE NEWS A three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that none of the challengers in a lawsuit challenging the birthplace of President Obama had legal standing to file the lawsuit on the day that the President was inaugurated. Judge Harry Pregerson, writing for the panel, said that some plaintiffs had waited too long to file their lawsuit, and that others were political rivals, taxpayers or military personnel. In the case of taxpayers, for instance, the court ruled they failed to show how the citizenship question affected any federal taxing and spending provisions of the U.S. Constitution. So far all lawsuits on the issue have met with no success.. Two other federal appeals on the issue are pending.

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Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

Judge Andrew Kleinfeld, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Andrew Jay Kleinfeld was born in June 1945 in New York City. He attended Wesleyan University and Harvard Law School. After law school, he clerked for two years at the Supreme Court of Alaska. He served as Fairbank’s part-time magistrate for a short time, but was generally in private practice in Fairbanks until his elevation to the bench.

He was nominated for full judgeship by President Ronald Reagan and confirmed by the Senate. In 1991 President George H. W. Bush nominated Kleinfeld to a seat on the Ninth Circuit, and he was confirmed by the Senate a few months later.

He is married to Judith Kleinfeld.

IN THE NEWS: Paying for blood donation is legal. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that peripheral blood stem cell apheresis is a more simple blood draw than what Congress had in mind when it included bone marrow in its list of human organs for which donors could not be compensated. “Congress could not have had intent to address the apheresis method when it passed the statute, because the method did not exist at the time,” said appellate Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld in the court’s 18-page opinion.

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Thursday, December 15th, 2011

Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Elena Kagan was born in April 1960, the middle of three children in a New York Jewish family. She earned an A.B. from Princeton University and a BCL from Worcester College, Oxford University. She obtained her law J.D. from Harvard Law School. She was always either summa or magna cum laude.

Kagan worked as a law clerk for Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. She later entered private practice as an associate at a Washington, D.C. law firm.

In 1991, she became an assistant professor of law at Harvard, and was tenured as a full professor four years later. Her interests focus on administrative law, including the role of the President of the United States. For four years she served as President Bill Clinton’s Associate White House Counsel and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council.

Kagan was named the first female dean of Harvard Law School in 2003. She is credited with building a consensus-building leadership style, and worked on improving student satisfaction. She is also responsible for the school’s exceeding a capitalization campaign but was also at the center of the university’s dispute with ROTC about campus recruiting.

In May 2010, President Obama chose Kagan to succeed Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. She was confirmed by the Senate in July. She is the first justice appointed without any prior experience as a judge since William Rehnquist in 1972. She is the fourth female justice in the Court’s history.

Justice Kagan is unmarried, and lists her faith as Conservative Judaism.

IN THE NEWS: The Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said that the Obama administration is fueling speculation about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s impartiality, because it won’t turn over documents detailing her role in crafting the legal strategy to defend the health care law while she was serving in the administration as Solicitor General. Records between January 2010 and March 2010 have not been included in documents furnished to the Committee. “Just as President Nixon had an 18-1/2 minute gap, does Ms. Kagan have a two-month gap?” questioned Representative Lamar Smith of Texas.

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Thursday, December 8th, 2011

Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Clarence Thomas was born June 1948 in Pin Point, Georgia. His parents were descendants of American slaves, and the family spoke Gullah as a first language. When he was seven, the family moved in with his maternal grandfather, by whom he was raised. He calls his grandfather “the greatest man I’ve ever known.”

At age 10, He worked on a farm daily from sunrise to sunset. Still, he was able to attend high school in Savannah, where he became an honor student. He attended Conception Seminary College in Missouri when, for a time, he was considering entering the priesthood. At the suggestion of a nun, Thomas attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, from which he graduated with an A.B. in English literature.

He had a series of deferments from the military draft while in college. Upon graduation, he was classified as 1-A and received a low lottery number, indicating he might well be drafted to serve in Vietnam. He failed his medical exam, however, due to a curvature of the spine, and entered Yale Law School, from which he would receive his juris doctor degree.

Thomas became an Assistant Attorney General in Missouri, serving there for three years. During the Reagan administration, he served as Assistant Secretary of Education for the Office of Civil Rights. He later became Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. President George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where he gained wide support. A short time later he was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. His confirmation hearing was highly controversial, for personal reasons and not for his legal or philosophical holdings. He was ultimately confirmed, and has held a seat on that bench since October 1991.

Justice Thomas was initially married to his college sweetheart, Kathy Grace Ambush, with whom he had one son. They later divorced, and he married Virginia (Gini) Lamp. Justice Thomas is Roman Catholic.

IN THE NEWS: For different reasons, critics are urging Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse themselves from the upcoming Supreme Court deliberations on the Healthcare Reform Act of 2010, known as “Obamacare.” Conservatives want Elena Kagan, the newest jurist on the bench, off because of her ties to the Obama Administration as its prior Solicitor General. Liberals would like to see Clarence Thomas to excuse himself because of his wife’s connection to advocacy groups that want the law overturned. Neither side is likely to get its wish.

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Judicial Branch Prayer Needs

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

PRAY FOR OUR JUDICIARY

Rainwater that falls on private timberland and runs off in drainage ditches and culverts must be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency according to a recent ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Supreme Court let stand a ruling that religious groups cannot use public school facilities for worship services outside normal school hours in a New York case about church-state separation.

Pray about whether rulings by U.S. Courts may be over-reaching.

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