George Bundy Smith (April 7, 1937 – August 5, 2017) was a lawyer and judge in New York State. While he was a law student at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, he participated in the Freedom Ride from

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

, to

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

Early life

Smith was born in New Orleans in 1937. He grew up in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and attended Phillips Academy, where he was the only

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

in the Class of 1955. He received an A.B. degree from

in 1959 and an LL.B. from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

in 1962. In addition, he earned his doctorate from NYU in Political Science. In 1961,

William Sloane Coffin William Sloane Coffin Jr. (June 1, 1924 – April 12, 2006) was an American Christian clergyman and long-time peace activist. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church, and later received ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ. In h ...

invited second-year law student Smith to go to

as a

Freedom Rider Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions ''Morgan v. Virginia'' ...

. He and ten other Freedom Riders were arrested in the Montgomery bus station in May 1961 and convicted of breach of the peace; their convictions were later reversed by the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

Career

Smith began his legal career as an attorney for the

NAACP Legal Defense Fund The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City. LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Altho ...

, working on cases including

James Meredith James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Missi ...

's successful litigation seeking admission to the University of Mississippi. He then spent a decade as law secretary to New York State Supreme Court Justices Jawn A. Sandifer, Edward R. Dudley, and Harold A. Stevens. In 1974, he served as administrator of the

Model Cities The Model Cities Program was an element of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty. The concept was presented by labor leader Walter Reuther to President Johnson in an off-the-record White House meeting on May 20, 1965. I ...

program in New York. Smith was a judge of the

New York City Civil Court The Civil Court of the City of New York is a civil court of the New York State Unified Court System in New York City that decides lawsuits involving claims for damages up to $25,000 and includes a small claims part (small claims court) for cases i ...

from 1975 to 1979 and a justice of the

New York State Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

from 1980 to 1986. In 1986, Governor Mario Cuomo appointed Smith to the Appellate Division, First Department, where he served from 1986 to 1992. In September 1992, Cuomo appointed Smith to a 14-year term as an Associate Judge of New York's highest court, the

Court of Appeals A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

in September 1992. Smith's best-known opinion for the Court was '' People v. LaValle'', a 4-to-3 decision holding that New York's death penalty statute was unconstitutional due to the structure of its sentencing procedures. In 2006, Governor

George Pataki George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...

was urged to reappoint Smith to another term on the Court of Appeals, although Smith would have served only another 16 months on the Court before mandatory retirement at age 70. Pataki declined to reappoint Smith and instead nominated Justice Eugene F. Pigott Jr. to the seat. After leaving the bench, Smith became a partner at the New York City law firm of Chadbourne & Parke and also worked as a mediator at

JAMS Jams or JAMS may refer to: *Plural form of jam, a type of fruit preserve *Jams (clothing line) *JAMS (organization), United States organization that provides alternative dispute resolution services *The JAMs, former name of The KLF, a British band ...

. He was also an adjunct professor of law at

Fordham Law School Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city. In 2013, 91% of the law school's first-time test tak ...

for many years both during and after his judicial service. In December 2005, Smith was awarded the

William Nelson Cromwell William Nelson Cromwell (January 17, 1854 – July 19, 1948) was an American attorney active in promotion of the Panama Canal and other major ventures especially in cooperation with Philippe Bunau-Varilla. Life and career He was born and rais ...

Award by the New York County Lawyers Association. Smith served several terms on the Board of Trustees of the

Horace Mann School , motto_translation = Great is the truth and it prevails , address = 231 West 246th Street , city = The Bronx , state = New York , zipcode = 10471 , countr ...

in Manhattan. Smith's twin sister, Inez Smith Reid, is a senior judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

References

External links

Ben Smith, "Judgement Day Approaches for George Bundy Smith", ''New York Daily News'' online, August 18, 2006 Remarks of Chief Judge Judith M. Kaye on presentation of Cromwell Award, December 13, 2005
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, George Bundy 1937 births 2017 deaths Lawyers from New Orleans Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Freedom Riders New York (state) state court judges New York Supreme Court Justices Judges of the New York Court of Appeals Phillips Academy alumni Yale Law School alumni Activists for African-American civil rights African-American judges African-American activists Fordham University faculty 20th-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century African-American people