Joseph Sneed

Joseph Tyree Sneed III (b. July 21, 1920 d. February 9, 2008) was a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He was appointed to the court in July 1973 by Richard M. Nixon after serving for six months as Deputy Attorney General in the Department of Justice.^[1]

Education

• Southwestern University, B.B.A., 1941
• University of Texas School of Law, LL.B., 1947
• Harvard Law School, S.J.D., 1958^[1]

Professional career

• U.S. Army Air Corps Staff Sergeant, 1942-1946
• Faculty, University of Texas Law School, 1947-1957
• Assistant professor, 1947-1951
• Associate professor, 1951-1954
• Professor, 1954-1957
• Private practice, Austin, Texas, 1954-1956
• Professor of law, Cornell University, 1957-1962
• Professor of law, Stanford University, 1962-1971
• Dean, professor of law, Duke University, 1971-1973
• Deputy attorney general of the United States, 1973^[1]

Federal judicial career

Judge Sneed was nominated to the Ninth Circuit on July 25, 1973 by Richard M. Nixon, to the seat vacated by Frederick G. Hamley. He was confirmed by the Senate on August 3, 1973, and commissioned on August 24, 1973. He assumed senior status on July 21, 1987, and his service terminated on February 9, 2008, due to death.^[1] In his rulings, Sneed said he sought a fair remedy, one that "harmonizes all the notes sounded in the interpretive symphony. Some notes in the symphony, however, should be played very softly, if at all. Those are the notes that sound in distributive justice," he wrote, according to the Washington Post.^[2]

Former law clerk, Nancy Rapoport, recalled:

^[4]

Sneed supervised U.S. marshals and FBI agents during the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1973. He also served on the judicial panel that appointed Kenneth Starr to investigate Bill Clinton for Clinton's financial investments in Whitewater.^[2]

See also

• United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit

Footnotes