Alston Johnson

Last updated

Harry Alston Johnson III (born March 31, 1946) is an American lawyer, a law professor and a former federal judicial nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Contents

Early life and education

Born in Baton Rouge and raised in Shreveport, Johnson was a Louisiana delegate to Boys Nation in Washington, D.C. in July 1963. It was there that Johnson would meet future President Bill Clinton, who also was a delegate to Boys Nation. Johnson graduated from Jesuit High School in Shreveport, which now is known as Loyola College Prep, in 1963.

Johnson earned a bachelor's degree in history cum laude in 1967 from Georgetown University, where he was a classmate of Clinton's. Johnson returned to Louisiana for law school, earning a J.D. degree from Louisiana State University Law Center in 1970, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif.

Professional career

In 1972, Johnson joined the faculty of the Louisiana State University Law Center, eventually becoming a full professor in 1978. In June 1984, Johnson joined the Phelps Dunbar law firm in New Orleans as a partner. He has continued to work as an adjunct professor at LSU's law school. [1]

Political involvement

A longtime Democrat, Johnson was a frequent overnight guest at the White House during the Clinton presidency. [2] He also represented future U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu in a legal matter in 1996, back when she was serving as Louisiana's state treasurer.

Nomination to the Fifth Circuit

On April 22, 1999, President Clinton nominated Johnson to a seat on the Fifth Circuit that had become vacant with the decision by Judge John M. Duhé Jr. to assume senior status. [3] Johnson initially had been considered by the White House in early 1999 as a candidate for a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, the Baton Rouge Advocate reported on January 13, 1999. However, the White House chose instead to nominate Johnson to the appeals-court post. "I am very honored that the president has nominated me to a court with a rich legal history and a reputation for judicial excellence," Johnson told the Shreveport Times in an article that was published on April 24, 1999. "I look forward to being confirmed in due course and serving on this court."

Despite being found "well-qualified" by the American Bar Association and despite having the support of both of his home-state senators, John Breaux and Mary Landrieu, Johnson's nomination languished. Then-Sen. Trent Lott blocked Johnson's nomination because Lott had wanted Clinton to nominate one of Lott's friends, Robert Galloway, to the Mississippi seat on the Fifth Circuit. [4] As a result, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee never held a hearing on Johnson's nomination, and the full Senate never took a vote on it.

With just days to go in his presidency, Clinton renominated Johnson on January 3, 2001. [5] However, Johnson's nomination was returned by President Bush on March 20, 2001, along with 61 other executive and judicial nominations that Clinton had made. [6]

In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Edith Brown Clement to the Fifth Circuit seat to which Johnson had been nominated. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 13, 2001, by a 99–0 vote.

On April 5, 2011, The Times-Picayune reported that in a November letter to President Obama, Sen. Mary Landrieu had recommended the names of four individuals to the president for consideration to the vacancy on the Fifth Circuit that had been created by Judge Jacques L. Wiener Jr. assuming senior status in September 2010. [7] The vacancy was ultimately filled by Stephen A. Higginson.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Landrieu</span> American politician (born 1955)

Mary Loretta Landrieu is an American entrepreneur and politician who served as a United States senator from Louisiana from 1997 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Landrieu served as the Louisiana State Treasurer from 1988 to 1996, and in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1980 to 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell B. Long</span> American politician

Russell Billiu Long was an American Democratic politician and United States Senator from Louisiana from 1948 until 1987. Because of his seniority, he advanced to chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, serving for fifteen years, from 1966 to 1981, during the implementation of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty programs. Long also served as Assistant Majority Leader from 1965 to 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Breaux</span> American politician (born 1944)

John Berlinger Breaux is an American lobbyist, attorney, and retired politician from Louisiana. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1972 to 1987 and as a United States Senator from 1987 to 2005. A Southern Democrat, he was considered one of the more conservative national legislators from the Democratic Party. Breaux was a member of the New Democrat Coalition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George W. Bush Supreme Court candidates</span>

Speculation abounded over potential nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States by President George W. Bush since before his presidency.

Miguel Angel Estrada Castañeda is a Honduran-American attorney who became embroiled in controversy following his 2001 nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Senate Democrats, unable to block his nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee after the Republican Party took control of the U.S. Senate in 2002, used a filibuster for the first time to prevent his nomination from being given a final confirmation vote by the full Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priscilla Richman</span> American judge (born 1954)

Priscilla Richman is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the chief United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She was previously a justice of the Supreme Court of Texas from 1995 to 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Brown Clement</span> American judge (born 1948)

Edith Brown Clement is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helene White</span> American judge (born 1954)

Helene N. White is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Previously, she was a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Sarah Elizabeth Gibson is a law professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law and a former federal judicial nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

During President Bill Clinton's first and second terms of office, he nominated 24 people for 20 federal appellate judgeships but the nominees were not processed by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. Three of the nominees who were not processed were nominated after July 1, 2000, the traditional start date of the unofficial Thurmond Rule during a presidential election year. Democrats claim that Senate Republicans of the 106th Congress purposely tried to keep open particular judgeships as a political maneuver to allow a future Republican president to fill them. Of the 20 seats in question, four were eventually filled with different Clinton nominees, fourteen were later filled with Republican nominees by President George W. Bush and two continued to stay open during Bush's presidency. Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader of the United States Senate during the 110th Congress, and Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democratic leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee under Reid, repeatedly mentioned the controversy over President Clinton's court of appeals nominees during the controversy involving the confirmation of Republican court of appeals nominees during the last two years of Bush's second term. Republicans claimed that Democrats were refusing to confirm certain longstanding Bush nominees in order to allow a future Democratic president in 2009 to fill those judgeships.

During President Ronald Reagan's presidency, he nominated two people for the Supreme Court and at least twelve people for various federal appellate judgeships who were not confirmed. In some cases, the nominations were not processed by the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee before Reagan's presidency ended, while in other cases, nominees were rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee or even blocked by unfriendly members of the Republican Party. Three of the nominees were renominated by Reagan's successor, President George H. W. Bush. Two of the nominees, Ferdinand Francis Fernandez and Guy G. Hurlbutt, were nominated after July 1, 1988, the traditional start date of the unofficial Thurmond Rule during a presidential election year. Eight of the thirteen seats eventually were filled by appointees of President George H. W. Bush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2002 United States Senate election in Louisiana</span>

The 2002 United States Senate election in Louisiana was held on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu won re-election to a second term, although she did not earn 50% of the vote in the first round and was therefore forced into a runoff election with Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell, the Louisiana Elections Commissioner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg G. Guidry</span> American judge (born 1960)

Greg Gerard Guidry is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He is a former associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal</span> Intermediate appellate court of Louisiana

The Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal are the intermediate appellate courts for the state of Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian A. Jackson</span> American judge (born 1960)

Brian Anthony Jackson is an American lawyer who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Erny Foote</span> American judge (born 1953)

Elizabeth Frances Erny Foote is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susie Morgan</span> American judge (born 1953)

Donna Sue "Susie" Morgan, known professionally as Susie Morgan, formerly known as Donna Sue Beach & Donna Sue Leteff, is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 Louisiana gubernatorial election</span>

The 2015 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on November 21, 2015, to elect the governor of Louisiana. Incumbent Republican Governor Bobby Jindal was not eligible to run for re-election to a third term because of term limits established by the Louisiana Constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Vitter</span> American judge (born 1961)

Wendy Baldwin Vitter is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darrel J. Papillion</span> American judge (born 1968)

Darrel James Papillion is an American lawyer from Louisiana who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

References

  1. H. Alston Johnson III Lawyer Profile on Martindale.com
  2. "The overnight Guest List - 1997". Archived from the original on 2019-04-19. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-10-06. Retrieved 2008-05-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Brennan Center for Justice | Breaux Says Outlook for Baton Rouge Lawyer Worsening". Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
  5. Office of the Press Secretary - President Clinton re-nominates H. Alston Johnson, III to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. | M2 Presswire | Find Articles at BNET.com
  6. Bush Dumps Clinton Nominees, 62 Executive And Judicial Nominees Are Pulled... - CBS News
  7. mobile.nola.com https://web.archive.org/web/20110822081937/http://mobile.nola.com/advnola/db_96609/contentdetail.htm%3Bjsessionid%3D574B706568B9F0FBF321E5CC4A93AA86?contentguid=GBNQElXm&detailindex=4&pn=0&ps=5&full=true. Archived from the original on 2011-08-22.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)