William Lockhart Garwood (October 29, 1931 – July 14, 2011) was a

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. Cou ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * Eastern District of Louisiana * M ...

Education and career

Born in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, to Wilmer St. John Garwood (1896–1987) and Ellen Burdine Clayton (1903–1993), Garwood was named after his maternal grandfather,

William Lockhart Clayton William Lockhart "Will" Clayton (February 7, 1880 – February 8, 1966) was an American business leader and government official. Much of his business career centered on cotton trading. He and his three brothers-in-law formed a partnership that gr ...

, a Houston cotton merchant and, as undersecretary of state for economic affairs, a principal architect of the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...

. Garwood 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

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1952 and 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 in 1955. Upon graduating first in his law school class, he clerked on the

for John Robert Brown, a judge whom he would later count as a colleague on that same court. He served for three years as a JAG officer in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

and then returned to

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, Texas, where he entered private practice with the firm of Graves, Dougherty, Hearon, Moody & Garwood.

State judicial service

On November 15, 1979, Garwood was appointed to the

Supreme Court of Texas The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the court of last resort for civil matters (including juvenile delinquency cases, which are categorized as civil under the Texas Family Code) in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court of ...

by Governor Bill Clements and became the first Republican to serve on that court since the end of Reconstruction. Notably, his father had served for a decade on the Texas high court, from January 14, 1948, to December 31, 1958, and is still regarded as one of Texas's finest jurists. The younger Garwood's tenure was shorter-lived however, ending on December 31, 1980. As he was fond of joking, "I was returned to private practice one-year later by popular mandate".

Federal judicial service

On September 17, 1981, President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

nominated Garwood to a new seat on the

created by 92 Stat. 1629 (President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

previously had nominated Andrew L. Jefferson, Jr. to the seat, but the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

had declined to act on Jefferson's nomination before Carter's presidency ended). Garwood was confirmed by the

on October 21, 1981, and received his commission on October 26, 1981. He assumed

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 January 23, 1997, but maintained a nearly-full workload on the court until his death.

Notable opinions

In ''

United States v. Lopez ''United States v. Alfonso D. Lopez, Jr.'', 514 U.S. 549 (1995), was a landmark case of the United States Supreme Court concerning the Commerce Clause. It was the first case since 1937 in which the Court held that Congress had exceeded its power ...

'', 2 F.3d 1342 (5th Cir. 1993), Judge Garwood, writing for a unanimous panel, invalidated the Gun-Free School Zone Act as an unconstitutional exercise of the Commerce Clause power. When ''Lopez'' was affirmed 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 ...

, it became the first Court decision in nearly six decades to place limits on Congressional power under the Commerce Clause and was one of the first shots fired in the Rehnquist Court's Federalist Revival. In '' United States v. Emerson'', 270 F.3d 203 (5th Cir. 2001), Judge Garwood wrote the first federal appellate decision embracing the individual-rights view of the Second Amendment.

Death

Garwood died in Austin on July 14, 2011, of a heart attack at age 79.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garwood, William Lockhart 1931 births 2011 deaths Burials at Texas State Cemetery Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit People from Houston Princeton University alumni Texas lawyers Justices of the Texas Supreme Court United States court of appeals judges appointed by Ronald Reagan 20th-century American judges United States Army officers University of Texas School of Law alumni