Sam Sparks (born 1939) is a

Senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the Austin Division of the

United States District Court for the Western District of Texas The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas (in case citations, W.D. Tex.) is a federal district court. The court convenes in San Antonio with divisions in Austin, Del Rio, El Paso, Midland, Pecos, and Waco. It has juri ...

Early life

After graduating from Austin High School as senior class president, Sparks received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 1961 where he was a member of the

Texas Cowboys The Texas Cowboys is an honorary student organization at the University of Texas that is currently suspended due to hazing violations. The organization was founded in 1922 by Arno Nowotny and Bill McGill, with the purpose of serving the University ...

and the

Delta Tau Delta Delta Tau Delta () is a United States-based international Greek letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1858. The fraternity currently has around 130 collegiate chapters ...

fraternity. He earned a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from the

University of Texas School of Law The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the law school of the University of Texas at Austin. Texas Law is consistently ranked as one of the top law schools in the United States and is highly selective—registering the 8th lowest ac ...

two years later. He clerked for United States District Court Judge

Homer Thornberry William Homer Thornberry (January 9, 1909 – December 12, 1995) was an American politician and judge. He served as the United States representative from the 10th congressional district of Texas from 1949 to 1963. From 1963 to 1965 he was a j ...

before turning to private practice.

Family

His great-grandfather and his grandfather were also named Sam Sparks; the former was sheriff of

Bell County, Texas Bell County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in Central Texas and its county seat is Belton. As of the 2020 census, its population was 370,647. Bell County is part of the Killeen–Temple, Texas, Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...

, and the latter succeeded him in 1897. This Sam Sparks became president of the Texas Sheriff's Association in 1903 and the Texas state treasurer in 1906. He was married to Arden Reed Sparks, until she died in 1990. He married his second wife, Melinda Echols, formerly of

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

, in 1995.

Federal judicial service

Sparks was nominated by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

on October 1, 1991, to the

, to a new seat created by 104 Stat. 5089. He was confirmed by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

on November 21, 1991, and received his commission on November 25, 1991. He took

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on December 31, 2017.

Notable cases

Sparks once began an order with a poem, and began another order with the following: "When the undersigned accepted the appointment from the President of the United States of the position now held, he was ready to face the daily practice of law in federal courts with presumably competent lawyers. No one warned the undersigned that in many instances his responsibility would be the same as a person who supervised

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

." Among his more notable cases were the sentencing of former

Texas Attorney General The Texas attorney general is the chief legal officer
of the

Dan Morales Daniel C. Morales (born April 24, 1956) is an American politician. He served as the 48th Texas Attorney General, Attorney General of Texas from January 15, 1991 through January 13, 1999, during the administrations of Governor of Texas, Governors ...

(for mail fraud and filing false tax returns) and the trial of Gary Paul Karr for federal

wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to fraud, defraud another, and are Federal crime in the United States, federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the ...

(in connection with the kidnapping and murders of atheist

Madalyn Murray O'Hair Madalyn Murray O'Hair (née Mays; April 13, 1919 – September 29, 1995) was an American activist supporting atheism and separation of church and state. In 1963 she founded American Atheists and served as its president until 1986, after which her ...

and her son and granddaughter). Sparks also heard the ''

Karl Rove Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950) is an American Republican political consultant, policy advisor, and lobbyist. He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until his resignation on August 3 ...

& Co. v Thornburgh'' case in 1993. This case found its way into court following a dispute over payment of fundraising expenses by the failed Republican Senate campaign of

Dick Thornburgh Richard Lewis Thornburgh (July 16, 1932 – December 31, 2020) was an American lawyer, author, and Republican politician who served as the 41st governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987, and then as the United States attorney general fro ...

. Sparks ruled that Rove's company could recoup roughly $180,000 in bills from the Thornburgh campaign. In 1994 Sparks ruled in favor of

Steve Jackson Games Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''. History Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...

against the

United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and ...

(''

Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service ''Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service'', 816 F. Supp. 432 (W.D. Tex. 1993), was a lawsuit arising from a 1990 raid by the United States Secret Service on the headquarters of Steve Jackson Games (SJG) in Austin, Texas. The ...

''). The latter had raided Jackson's offices and seized computers, searching for a sensitive file that one of Jackson's employees may have posted. The

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...

helped with the lawsuit, and Sparks ruled that the Secret Service had acted in a too heavy-handed manner. In 1998 Sparks issued stays of execution for Joseph Stanley Faulder and Danny Lee Barber, holding that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles failed to provide due process in considering their requests for clemency. He received the Trial Judge of the Year from the Texas Chapter of the Board of Trial Advocates in 2005. In 2010, he became the second honoree in the history of the American College of Trial Lawyers' Sandra Day O'Connor Award. The award "is to be given from time to time to a judge, either federal or state, who has demonstrated exemplary judicial independence in the performance of his or her duties, sometimes in difficult or even dangerous circumstances." In 2006 he handled a case involving the

Texas Republican Party The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the state of Texas. It is currently chaired by Matt Rinaldi, succeeding Allen West who resigned prior to the expiration of his term to run for governo ...

's effort to get former Congressman

Tom DeLay Thomas Dale DeLay (; born April 8, 1947) is an American author and retired politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1985 until 2006. He was Republic ...

's name removed from the ballot in the 2006 Congressional Election. DeLay won the Republican

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

in March, but resigned from Congress in early April during a corruption scandal. However, since Texas law states that the name of a candidate who "withdraws" from a race after the primary must remain on the ballot, Texas Democrats filed a lawsuit to prevent Republicans from nominating another candidate. Republicans argued that DeLay did not "withdraw" from the race but instead made himself ineligible to be elected by changing his voter registration from Texas to

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, therefore allowing Republicans to name a replacement. On July 6, Judge Sparks ruled that DeLay's name must remain on the ballot. In 2007, Justice Sparks ruled in a landmark settlement that greatly improved conditions for immigrant children and their families who were being held in the T. Don Hutto Residential Center operated by the

Corrections Corporation of America CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas W. Beasley ...

(CCA) under contract with the

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

(ICE). Dozens of children were released from the facility in

Taylor, Texas Taylor is a city in Williamson County, Texas, United States. The population was 13,575 at the 2000 census; it was 15,191 at the 2010 census; it was 16,267 at the 2020 census. History In 1876, the Texas Land Company auctioned lots in anticipati ...

with their families as a result of the litigation. In response to the harsh treatment of young children in T. Don Hutto, Judge Sparks established "the government would have to establish clear rules for how to detain families safely and humanely. And although officials at Hutto might be making changes now, he noted, didn’t Lawrence have a feeling it was merely because the defendants knew, on account of the lawsuit, that 'the hammer was coming down?" He said that he was beginning to wonder who was in charge "out there, either C.C.A. or the government. It’s very troubling to me." In 2009, Sparks heard '' Fisher v. University of Texas'', a case challenging the admissions policy of the University of Texas at Austin. He upheld UT's policy under ''

Grutter v. Bollinger ''Grutter v. Bollinger'', 539 U.S. 306 (2003), was a landmark case of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning affirmative action in student admissions. The Court held that a student admissions process that favors "underrepresented minor ...

''. In 2012 the court commemorated his 20 years served on the federal bench and marked the occasion with a portrait painted by artist

Michele Rushworth Michele Rushworth is an American artist noted for her oil-based portrait paintings. She has painted the official portraits of leading figures in government, law, education, medicine and the arts, including nine state gubernatorial portraits

References

External links

*
Text of decision
of the DeLay case, Texas Democratic Party v Benkiser
Re: Copeland trial
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sparks, Sam 1939 births Living people People from Austin, Texas Austin High School (Austin, Texas) alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas United States district court judges appointed by George H. W. Bush 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges