| Edith Brown Clement | |
|---|---|
| Judge on United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2001 |
|
| Nominated by | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | John Malcolm Duhé, Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 29, 1948 Birmingham, Alabama |
| Alma mater | University of Alabama Tulane University Law School |
Edith "Joy" Brown Clement (born April 29, 1948) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
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Judge Clement was born in Birmingham, Alabama and educated at the University of Alabama, receiving her B.A. in 1969, and at the Tulane University Law School, where she received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1972. Her early career included a period clerking for Judge Herbert W. Christenberry at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (1973–1975), after which she worked as a maritime attorney in private practice in New Orleans, Louisiana until 1991.
On October 1, 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Clement to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. She was confirmed by the Senate to this post on November 21, 1991 by a vote of 99-0, and received commission on November 25, 1991. In 2001 she served as chief judge of this court, before being nominated to the Fifth Circuit.
Clement was nominated to her current seat on September 4, 2001 by President George W. Bush to fill a seat vacated by Judge John Malcolm Duhé, Jr., who had assumed Senior status. President Bill Clinton in 1999 had nominated Louisiana lawyer H. Alston Johnson III to the seat on the Fifth Circuit created by Duhé's vacancy, but the United States Senate never held a hearing or took a vote on Johnson's nomination. Clement was confirmed by the Senate on November 13, 2001 by a vote of 99-0, and received her commission on November 26, 2001. She was the first judge Bush appointed to the Fifth Circuit who was confirmed by the Senate.
Judge Clement is a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, the Federal Bar Association, the American Law Institute, the Federalist Society, the Tulane Law School's Inn of Court, and the Committee on the Administrative Office of the Judicial Conference of the United States.
Clement has a reputation as a conservative jurist and a strict constructionist who strongly supports principles of federalism. She has written few high-profile opinions.
She wrote for the majority in Vogler v. Blackmore,[1] reducing pain and suffering damages awarded by a jury to a mother and daughter who were killed in a car accident. The basis of her ruling was the lack of specific evidence about the daughter's "awareness of the impending collision." Large damage awards to the father and husband due to the loss of society in his wife and daughter were affirmed.
In Chiu v. Plano Independent School District,[2] Clement held that a school district's policy requiring the preapproval of fliers handed out at a school event violated the First Amendment free speech rights of would-be protestors.
In United States v. Harris,[3] Clement again wrote for the majority, this time reinstating the sentence of a police captain convicted for violation of federal civil rights laws in using excessive force. The captain moved to vacate, arguing that his counsel had been insufficient. Clement and the court held that the representation had been reasonable.
Clement wrote a unanimous opinion for the 5th Circuit in Tarver v. City of Edna. She upheld officers' appeal of qualified immunity for reasonably arresting a father who was interfering with the return of a child to its rightful custodian. Qualified immunity also protected officers from the plaintiff's accusation of excessive force in using handcuffs and confining him to the police car as part of the arrest. Officers also, however, slammed the car door on his foot and head, and the plaintiff's excessive force claim under this heading was remanded.
Clement has joined other conservative judges in dissenting in Commerce Clause cases that implicate federalism. In U.S. v. McFarland,[4] she argued that the Commerce Clause power did not enable Congress to regulate local robberies. In GDF Realty Investments, Ltd. v. Norton[5] Clement argued that the Endangered Species Act needed a commercial nexus to enable regulation of endemic rare species.
In 2010, Judge Clement joined Judges Garza and Owen in affirming the dismissal of the complaint in Doe v. Silsbee Independent School District.[6] The plaintiff ("H.S.") was a cheerleader who was ordered by her high school to cheer for her alleged rapist, a basketball player named Rakheem Bolton.[7] H.S. refused and was kicked off the team. She sued, claiming a violation of her First Amendment right to free speech. The Eastern District of Texas, Judge Thad Heartfield, granted the school district's motion to dismiss,[8] and Judges Clement, Garza, and Owen affirmed.[6] H.S. was ordered to pay the school $45,000 in legal fees for filing a "frivolous" lawsuit.[7]
Just prior to the nomination of John Roberts in the summer of 2005 to replace retiring justice Sandra Day O'Connor, it was widely circulated in the press that Clement would receive the nomination. With John Roberts' promotion to Chief Justice by President Bush, the media mentioned Clement again as a possible choice to fill what would have been his spot as an Associate Justice.[9] Much of this speculation was because Clement is a conservative woman with a limited paper trail on controversial issues. Time, however, stated that Clement's chances were diminished because the Bush Administration believed her to be guilty of excessive self-promotion. Eventually, George W. Bush chose White House Counsel Harriet Miers as his nominee to succeed O'Connor, but with the withdrawal of Miers's nomination,[10] Clement again was thought to be a potential nominee until the nomination of federal judge Samuel Alito, who was ultimately confirmed.
Material on this page is taken or adapted from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Policy, and from the Fifth Circuit Library System of the United States Court of Appeals, both public domain sources.
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Malcolm Duhé, Jr. |
Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit 2001-present |
Succeeded by incumbent |