Joseph Tyree Sneed III
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Joseph T. Sneed, III (July 21, 1920 – February 7, 2008) was a respected member of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for nearly 35 years until his death at his home in San Francisco, California.
[edit] Early Life
Sneed was born in Calvert, Texas (outside Austin). He spent his youth working summers as a cowboy on his uncle's ranch in the Texas panhandle.
[edit] Career
Sneed attended the University of Texas School of Law, where he received his LL.B. with Order of the Coif in 1947. He was offered a job as an assistant professor upon graduation, became an associate professor in 1951 and was made a full professor in 1954. The law school subsequently established an endowed scholarship in his name. Mr. Sneed also spent 10 years on the faculty of his law school alma mater.
In addition to his law degree, Judge Sneed received a S.J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1958. He earned his undergrad degree from Southwestern University in 1941 and served as a staff sergeant in the Army Air Corps during World War II.
Sneed served in the U.S. Department of Justice as the deputy attorney general in 1973. However, much of his career prior to that was spent in the classrooms of some of the nation's top law schools. He was the dean of the Duke University School of Law, 1971 to 1973, and a law professor at Stanford Law School, 1962 to 1971, and Cornell Law School, 1957 to 1962.
Two of Sneed's colleagues on the Ninth Circuit bench, Judges Pamela Ann Rymer and Raymond C. Fisher, both studied tax law under him at Stanford.
Sneed was nominated by President Nixon and received his judicial commission on August 24, 1973. He served as an active judge of the court until taking senior status on July 21, 1987. He continued to hear cases and serve the court in other capacities for many more years. At the time of his death, he was the fourth most senior judge on the court.
Over his long career, Judge Sneed served on hundreds of appellate panels considering all aspects of the law and is remembered both for important opinions and noteworthy dissents. He also served on advisory committees to the Ninth Circuit, Federal Judicial Center, American Judicature Society and American Bar Association.
