Clement Haynsworth


Clement Furman Haynsworth Jr. was a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and an unsuccessful nominee for the United States Supreme Court.

Education and career

Born on October 30, 1912, in Greenville, South Carolina, Haynsworth received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1933 from Furman University and a Bachelor of Laws in 1936 from Harvard Law School. He entered private practice in Greenville from 1936 to 1942. He served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1945. He returned to private practice in Greenville from 1945 to 1957.

Federal judicial service

Haynsworth was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on February 19, 1957, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated by Judge Armistead Mason Dobie. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 4, 1957, and received commission the same day. He served as Chief Judge and a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1964 to 1981. He assumed senior status on April 6, 1981 until his death on November 22, 1989 in Greenville, South Carolina.

Unsuccessful Supreme Court nomination

On August 21, 1969, President Richard Nixon nominated Haynsworth to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was proposed to succeed liberal justice Abe Fortas, who had resigned over conflict of interest charges.
Haynsworth was opposed by a coalition of Democrats, Rockefeller Republicans, and the NAACP. He was alleged to have made court decisions favoring segregation and of being reflexively anti-labor. Democratic United States Senator Philip Hart of Michigan said that Haynsworth's decisions on civil rights and labor/management were "unacceptable," while Republican Senator Marlow Cook of Kentucky argued that Haynsworth was being "subjected to a character assassination that is unjustified." Cook argued that Haynsworth was "a man of honesty and a man of integrity."
Controversy erupted over his rulings affirming the decision by local authorities to close the Prince Edward County schools to avoid integration, upholding the constitutionality of school voucher programs used to fund segregated private schools and supporting the management of the Darlington Manufacturing Company in South Carolina over its closing of the factory allegedly over unionisation.
Haynsworth was also accused of ruling in cases in which he had a financial interest, although this claim was never proved. Haynsworth was later termed a "moderate" who was "close in outlook" to John Paul Stevens, a 1975 nominee of President Gerald R. Ford, Jr. Haynsworth's nomination was defeated by a vote of 55 to 45 on November 21, 1969. 19 Democrats and 26 Republicans voted for Haynsworth while 38 Democrats and 17 Republicans voted against the nomination. Haynsworth was the first Supreme Court nominee to be defeated by the Senate since the rejection of Judge John J. Parker in 1930. After his failed nomination to the Supreme Court, Haynsworth was asked by the justices of the court to be an unofficial advisor to them and their cases. Nixon eventually nominated Harry Blackmun, who was confirmed by the Senate.

Honor

The Clement F. Haynsworth Jr. Federal Building in Greenville was renamed in his honor.