- Originally published in the Copley News Service February 22, 2005
Copyright 2005 Copley News Service
By Marc H. Morial
Does
a United States District Court judge who has demonstrated extraordinary
hostility to laws protecting the rights of Americans deserve
appointment to a U.S. Court of Appeals?
Does
a U.S. District Court judge of extremely conservative views deserve
advancement to the U.S. Court of Appeals for his jurisdiction when more
than 150 of his decisions have been reversed on appeal by that very
Court of Appeals - a panel which itself is universally regarded as the
most conservative Appeals Court in the country?
Does
a U.S. District Court judge who fails to turn over thousands of his
unpublished civil rights opinions to the Senate Judiciary Committee,
which is to review his nomination, deserve a lifetime seat on the
nation's second highest court?
These and
other questions surround the Bush administration's nomination of U.S.
District Court Judge Terrence Boyle for a seat on the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Its jurisdiction covers the states of
North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.
We
think the answers to those questions add up to a resounding no - and we
urge the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is about to formally
consider the nomination, to reject it.
Judge
Boyle, of North Carolina, has been a Federal District Court judge since
1984, when he was appointed by President Reagan. He was first nominated
to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1991 by President George H.W.
Bush, but the Judiciary Committee let his nomination lapse. Now, Judge
Boyle, long supported by former Republican Sen. Jesse Helms, of North
Carolina, on whose staff he once served, and the late Republican Sen.
Strom Thurmond, of South Carolina, has been renominated to the Fourth
Circuit by President George W. Bush.
But the Senate Judiciary Committee's answer must still be no.
Judge
Boyle's decisions overwhelmingly display an astonishing disregard for
the rights of individuals and the proper exercise of judicial
authority. As his record of reversals on appeal proves, even a
significantly conservative review panel has found his rulings
unacceptable far too often.
In cases
involving race that come before Judge Boyle, the plaintiffs rarely
reach the trial stage. He's dismissed numerous cases even before trial
- decisions that have prompted numerous reversals by the Fourth Circuit
Court.
For example, in one case, Rogers v.
Lee, the Fourth Circuit reversed Judge Boyle for not following the
established law on discriminatory jury selection practices. In that
case, Judge Boyle allowed the prosecution to strike every black juror,
leaving the African-American defendant to be tried and subsequently convicted by an all-white jury.
In another case, Franks v. Ross, the Fourth Circuit reversed Judge Boyle for summarily rejecting a claim of environmental racism
by plaintiffs seeking to halt construction of a landfill in a
predominantly black area. The Fourth Circuit cited numerous errors by
Judge Boyle, including his abuse of his discretion in denying an
amended complaint, incorrectly calculating when the statute of
limitations had begun to run, and wrongly concluding that state
officials were immune from being sued.
Judge
Boyle's errors in one civil rights case led the U.S. Supreme Court to
reverse him twice in that same case. The case was Cromartie v. Hunt, in
which a group of white North Carolina voters challenged the drawing of
boundaries for a district represented by Democrat Mel Watt, an African-American.
First,
the high court declared in a unanimous 9-0 decision that Judge Boyle
had erred in ruling without a trial that the North Carolina legislature
drew the boundaries of the district primarily for racial reasons.
Judge Boyle then held a trial - and again ruled the district's boundaries had been drawn for racial
purposes. Again, the Supreme Court declared that it had not been proved
the state legislature had drawn the district's boundaries primarily for
racial reasons, and reversed Judge Boyle's decision.
Judge
Boyle's record is replete with examples of his seeking to protect the
state from civil rights lawsuits that don't involve race, too.
For
example, in a suit against the North Carolina Department of Motor
Vehicles, Judge Boyle was one of the first judges in the country to
assert that a state's sovereign immunity protected it from suits filed
by employees under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Later, he ruled
that Congress did not have the authority to apply the ADA to state
prisons. The Supreme Court, taking up a similar case involving
Pennsylvania, subsequently declared that states could be sued under ADA
provisions.
Judge Boyle's record on the
bench marks him as being significantly out of step with mainstream
American jurisprudence, be it conservative or liberal, and with the
need of all the residents of a Circuit Court jurisdiction that has more
African-Americans residing within its boundaries than any of the nation's 12 other Circuit Courts.
Certainly,
the Bush administration, which has seen more than 200 of its judicial
nominees approved by the Senate, can do better than Judge Terrence
Boyle.
The Senate Judiciary Committee must do its duty in reminding them of that.
Marc H. Morial is president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League.
- Civil Rights Coalition Calls Boyle Unfit, Opposes Confirmation [more]