Harry T. Edwards

Harry Thomas Edwards (born 1940) is a United States federal judge.

Born in New York, New York, Judge Edwards received a B.S. from Cornell University in 1962, where he was a member of the Quill and Dagger society. He received a J.D. from University of Michigan Law School in 1965 and practiced law in Chicago for the firm of Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson from 1965 to 1970. He then taught as a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School from 1970 to 1975 and from 1977 to 1980. In between, he taught at Harvard Law School.^[1] He also taught at the Harvard Institute for Educational Management between 1976 and 1982. He served as a member and then Chairman of the Board of Directors of Amtrak from 1978 to 1980, and also served as a neutral labor arbitrator under a number of major collective bargaining agreements during the 1970s.^[2]

On December 6, 1979, Judge Edwards was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated by David L. Bazelon.^[3] Edwards was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 20, 1980, and received commission the same day. He served as chief judge from September 15, 1994 to July 15, 2001, and assumed senior status on November 3, 2005.^[2]

Judge Edwards has co-authored five books and published articles on labor law, higher education law, federal courts, legal education, professionalism and judicial administration. Since joining the court, he has taught law at Harvard, Michigan, Duke, Pennsylvania, and Georgetown University. He has served as a Visiting Professor of Law at New York University Law School since 1990.^[4]

When he was an undergraduate at Cornell University, Judge Edwards was admitted into membership in Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. Edwards broke the fraternity's race barrier in part through the efforts of Michael Schwerner, who also served as his pledgemaster. He and Schwerner remained close friends until Schwerner was killed in Mississippi on June 21, 1964 during the Civil Rights Movement.^[5] Judge Edwards is still good friends with Schwerner's widow, Rita Bender. Some years after graduating from Cornell, Judge Edwards resigned his membership from Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. On March 30, 1979, while he was a Professor at the University of Michigan Law School,^[6] Judge Edwards was admitted to membership in Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically African-American fraternity.^[7][8]

In 2006, Judge Edwards was appointed by the United States National Research Council at the National Academy of Sciences to serve as Co-Chair of the Committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community.^[9] On February 18, 2009, the Committee published a widely hailed study reporting serious deficiencies in the nation's forensic science system and calling for major reforms and new research.^[10]The report said that rigorous and mandatory certification programs for forensic scientists were lacking, as were strong standards and protocols for analyzing and reporting on evidence.^[11] The report also indicated that there was a dearth of peer-reviewed, published studies establishing the scientific bases and reliability of many forensic methods, and that many forensic science labs were underfunded, understaffed, and had no effective oversight.^[11] Numerous reform efforts have been initiated in the wake of the report.^{[12][13][14][15]}

References

• Harry T. Edwards at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

External links

• Biography from the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit