U.S. judge who struck down ‘under God’ in pledge dies
SAN FRANCISCO — Judge Stephen Reinhardt was an unabashed liberal on what’s widely considered the nation’s most left-leaning appeals court, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The judge who died Thursday had blasted President Bill Clinton’s administration in a 1994 New York Times article for what he said was its failure to nominate liberal judges and urged then-u.s. Supreme Court nominee Stephen Breyer to “not let the spirit of liberalism be extinguished.”
“Someone must carry on the work of the court’s great progressive thinkers,” he wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 1994. “The justices who ended de jure racial segregation, brought us one man/ one vote, opened the courts to the poor and needy, established the right to counsel for all defendants, gave women true legal equality.”
Reinhardt died of a heart attack during a visit to a dermatologist in Los Angeles, 9th Circuit spokesman David Madden said. He was 87 and still an active member of the court he joined in 1980 after being nominated by President Jimmy Carter.
Reinhardt’s outspoken liberalism was unusual for a judge.
“I think he really wore it on his sleeve in some ways,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law and expert on the selection of federal judges.
Supporters lauded him as a champion of immigrants, prisoners and the disadvantaged. Critics said his decisions were extreme.
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Republican, called Reinhardt “brilliant” during confirmation hearings for another judge in 2003 but said “many justly criticize his activist approach.”