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Judge Bernice Donald of Memphis Picked for Top Judicial Post

By Paul Shepard on Dec 6th 2010 4:22PM
Filed under: News, Politics, President Obama, Race and Civil Rights

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Judge Bernice Donald of Memphis Picked for Top Judicial Post

Praising her "outstanding commitment of public service," President Barack Obama today selected Judge Bernice Bouie Donald to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati. The Sixth Circuit hears appeals from Tennessee, Michigan, Kentucky and Ohio.

A Mississippi native, Donald, 59, began breaking racial barriers in her youth when she was one of the first black students to integrate Olive Branch High School. And she hasn't stopped since.

After graduating the University of Memphis, she received her law degree from the law school at Memphis State University and provided legal aid services for poor Memphis residents as a staff lawyer for the Memphis Area Legal Services office.

In 1982, Donald became judge on the Court of General Sessions making her the first black female to serve as a judge in Tennessee history. Six years later, she became the first black woman to serve in federal bankruptcy court.

Donald now serves as U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Tennessee and as an officer of the 400,000-member American Bar Association, the first black woman to hold such a position.

Donald has been praised by those she has worked with, like former U.S. Attorney Veronica Coleman Davis, as a fair, no nonsense decider of the facts.

"She's a student of the law," Coleman Davis told the Memphis Commercial Appeal in an interview today. "She is a consummate jurist."

Donald has to be nominated by the U.S. Senate and both senators from her home state, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, are Republicans and hold great influence over whether Donald's nomination will get to a vote before the full Senate.

Hopefully, Donald's fine record will trump partisan politics and she will find herself serving on the Sixth Circuit before too long.

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