Joyce Hens Green (born November 13, 1928) is a Senior United States district judge of the

United States District Court for the District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of ...

. Green was nominated by 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 ...

on March 6, 1979, to a seat vacated by Howard F. Corcoran. She was confirmed by 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 ...

on May 10, 1979, and received commission on May 11, 1979. She 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 July 1, 1995.

Education and career

Born in 1928 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, New York, Green graduated from the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

, receiving 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 in 1949. She entered the

University of Maryland School of Law The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (formerly University of Maryland School of Law) is the law school of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and is located in Baltimore City, Maryland, U.S. Its location places Maryland ...

and transferred to the

George Washington University Law School The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) is the law school of George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest top law school in the national capital. GW Law offers the largest range of cou ...

, receiving a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from that institution in two years, in 1951. She also received an honorary

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...

(LL.D.) from

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

in 1994 and has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of

Towson High School Towson High School is a high school in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, founded in 1873. The school's current stone structure was built in 1949. Located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson and serving the surrounding communities ...

. Green practiced law in the

District of Columbia ) , 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

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 ...

until she was appointed Associate Judge of the

Superior Court of the District of Columbia The Superior Court of the District of Columbia, commonly referred to as DC Superior Court, is the trial court for the District of Columbia, in the United States. It hears cases involving criminal and civil law, as well as family court, landlor ...

in 1968, where she served for over a decade.

Federal judicial service

On March 6, 1979, President

nominated Green to be a United States District Judge of the

, to a seat vacated by Judge

Howard Francis Corcoran Howard Francis Corcoran (January 25, 1906 – May 11, 1989) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Education and career Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Corcoran received an Artium ...

. She was confirmed by the

on May 10, 1979 and received her commission on May 11, 1979. She took

on July 1, 1995 and was succeeded by Henry H. Kennedy Jr., who had also succeeded her on the Superior Court bench. Green was a member of the

United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants aga ...

(FISC) from May 1988 until May 1995, and served as its Presiding Judge from May 1990 until May 1995.

Professional affiliations

Green is a member of the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...

, the

American Judicature Society The American Judicature Society (AJS) is an independent, non-partisan membership organization working nationally to protect the integrity of the American justice system. AJS's membership — including judges, lawyers, and members of the public — ...

, the Federal Bar Association, the

National Association of Women Judges National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) is an American professional organization founded in 1979. Members are lawyers and women judges who are dedicated to preserving judicial independence to women, minorities and other historically disfavor ...

, and the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia. She served as the President of the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia from 1962-1963. She served as the chair of the National Conference of Trial Judges from 1997–1998. She has served as an instructor at the Militia Academy in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

Republic of Belarus A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

for the U.S. Information Agency and serves on the board of advisors for the George Washington University Law School. On June 16, 2004 Green received an American Inns of Court Professionalism Award. She has received the George Washington University's Professional Achievement Award (1975); been named "Woman Lawyer of the Year" by the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia (1979); and received a certificate of appreciation from the Chief Justice of the United States (1995).

Significant cases

IRS v. The Church of Scientology

In 1992, Judge Green ruled in favor of the

Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a scientology as a business, bu ...

in the case o
Church of Scientology v. Internal Revenue Service
on a pretrial motion for summary judgment.

Release of BCCI's frozen assets

On September 1, 1995 Green Ordered $393 million seized from the

Bank of Credit and Commerce International The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was an international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The bank was registered in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London. A decade after opening, BCC ...

turned over to the bank's victims. BCCI had been involved in criminal activity and its assets had been freed in 1992. Green had heard, and ruled on, three challenges to the release of the seized funds.

FEC v. The Christian Coalition

Green ruled against the

Federal Election Commission The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency of the United States whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance law in United States federal elections. Created in 1974 through amendments to the Federal Election Cam ...

in ''Federal Election Commission v. The Christian Coalition'' Civil Action No. 96-1781 Opinion & Order; and Judgment, filed August 2, 1999. The FEC had challenged the propriety of the Christian Coalition's distribution of voter guides, on the grounds it had been too closely tied to large corporate donors. But, Green's 108-page judgment had supported the FEC in two instances; when the Christian Coalition had broken FEC guidelines in their explicit advocacy of the re-election of

Newt Gingrich Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U ...

; and when the Christian Coalition had handed over their membership list to Senate candidate

Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Secu ...

In re Guantanamo Detainee Cases

Following 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 ...

ruling in ''

Rasul v. Bush ''Rasul v. Bush'', 542 U.S. 466 (2004), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that foreign nationals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp could petition federal courts for writs of ''habeas corpus ...

'' (2004), which determined that detainees had the right of ''

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

'' and due process to challenge their detention before an impartial tribunal, many habeas corpus cases were filed on behalf of detainees at

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

. On September 15, 2004, Judge Green was appointed the coordinating judge for all Guantanamo Bay ''habeas corpus'' cases. On January 31, 2005, Judge Green ruled that: (1) detainees had the fundamental Fifth Amendment right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law;
(2) complaints stated a claim for violation of due process based on

Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were esta ...

's ("CSRT") extensive reliance on classified information in its resolution of "enemy combatant" status of detainees, the detainees' inability to review that information, and the prohibition of assistance by counsel jointly deprived detainees of sufficient notice of the factual bases for their detention and denied them a fair opportunity to challenge their incarceration;
(3) due process required that CSRTs sufficiently consider whether the

evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

upon which the tribunal relied in making its "enemy combatant" determinations had been obtained through

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

;
(4) complaints stated a claim for violation of due process based on the government's employment of an overly broad definition of "enemy combatant" subject to indefinite detention; and
(5)

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conven ...

applied to the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

detainees, but not to members of the

al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

terrorist organization.''In re Guantanamo Detainee Cases'', 355 F.Supp.2d 443 (D.D.C. 2005).

Notes

#
Hon. Joyce Hens Green
''American Inns of Court Professionalism Award'', June 16, 2004 #

''

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

'', September 1, 1995 #
Federal Election Commission v. Christian Coalition
United States Court of the District of Columbia, August 3, 1999 #

''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', August 3, 1999 #
Resolution of the Executive Session
United States Court of the District of Columbia, September 15, 2004'', resolution assigning Green the senior role in reviewing Guantanamo detainees legal requests #

''

'', February 1, 2005 #
Judge Backs Guantanamo Detainee Challenges: Judge Allows Some Guantanamo Detainees to Challenge Confinement, Criticizes White House Policy
''

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

'', January 31, 2005 #
Judicial Wake-Up Call
''

'', February 1, 2005 #
Righting wrongs for Guantanamo detainees
''

Salon (magazine) ''Salon'' is an American Progressivism in the United States, politically progressive/Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on Politics of the United States, U.S. politics ...

'', February 1, 2005 #
Panel Ignored Evidence on Detainee: U.S. Military Intelligence, German Authorities Found No Ties to Terrorists
''

'', March 27, 2005 #
Mustafa Aid Idir's dossier (.pdf)
from his CSRT, pages 26–27 of 53.

References

External links

Legends in the Law: A Conversation with Joyce Hens Green
''District of Columbia Bar Report'', 1999 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Joyce Hens 1928 births 20th-century American judges American jurists George Washington University Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judges presiding over Guantanamo habeas petitions Judges of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Living people Lawyers from New York City Towson High School alumni United States district court judges appointed by Jimmy Carter University of Maryland, College Park alumni Virginia lawyers Judges of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Recipients of the Agency Seal Medal 21st-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women judges