February 18, 2008 - 12:24 AM.

His Honor Judge Thelton Henderson

Today I am grateful for Federal Judge Thelton Henderson.

I was finishing knitting up a dishcloth after a long go-down for the boy, turned on the TV, and there on PBS is a series called "Heart of Justice" that apparently profiles judges. Yay -- for a woman who short-listed the name Thurgood for our child, you know this is exactly the kind of thing I geek right out on. A quick recap:

His Honor Thelton Henderson was raised in California by his mother and grandmother; his mother lived in service, only getting to come home to her child one weekend a month, for years, until she saved enough to put down on a house in Watts. Her son did very well in school, went to college on a football scholarship, had a terrible knee injury that cancelled his scholarship, and therefore barreled through the books to earn a place at Boalt Hall (Cal's law school, which at that time admitted only one black student per term -- v. early 1960s).

First job, Justice Dept., observing the Civil Rights movement and discrimination in the South. Got the job because the Kennedy administration was terribly embarrassed to have no lawyers of color on this important team, and went looking for a good person to bring on board. He went through amazing and horrifying experiences there, ending in having to resign from the Dept. a few days after the Birmingham church bombings for loaning his reliable (dept.) car to the Rev. Dr. MLK Jr. so he could get out of town alive. Ah yes folks, the media and racist Congress could divert attention from a real problem in 10 seconds flat back then too.

After being invited to join the staff of the reverend, our hero declines in favor of staying in California to be near his young son. He opens the first public law center in East Palo Alto, and in a few years when affirmative action begins to be a reality, puts Stanford Law's program into effect, to great success. Is appointed to the federal bench by President Jimmy Carter, the president who by far has done the most to diversify the federal judiciary -- in fact it was his active policy to seek and appoint judges from a wide variety of backgrounds, in order to mold the federal judiciary to more accurately reflect the experience of more Americans (yes, really).

So the most enormous cases Judge Henderson has been involved in (yes he is still presiding) are as follows:

Dolphin-safe tuna -- dolphin "involvement" in tuna fishing had been illegal for decades already, and Judge Henderson was the one who ruled that the U.S. tuna fleet was in violation of the law in their practices and in not carrying observers on the boats. When the Dept. of Commerce tried to end-run his decisions by using NAFTA as a cover to import Mexican tuna (harvested w/no dolphin protections), he blocked that as illegal too under the same law.

Prop. 209 -- when the voters of California voted to outlaw affirmative action for the State, Judge Henderson found the Proposition to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment (equal protection under the law), and blocked its implementation. Despite appeals, his decision was upheld numerous times. Ultimately overturned and then refused by the Supreme Court, a few years later the S.C. did rule in another case that outlawing affirmative action violated the 14th amendment -- although it is now too late for California to benefit from this ruling.

Prison reform in California -- when Pelican Bay "correctional facility" opened not 2 hours from my home town in northern California, we all knew it would be bad news in a big way. You could just feel the terrible karma accumulating even as it was being built. Well surprise surprise, as soon as that thing was up and running, "cruel and unusual" allegations started streaming out of it. Judge Henderson basically singlehandedly took that place in hand, visiting it personally, presiding over a ten-WEEK trial, and writing a scathing judgement condemning the conditions, the design, and the actions of the guards. So severe were the abuses, that he replaced much of the authority of the state and federalized many aspects of the prison administration. He is not done holding that place to a standard, but he has been able to change aspects of its medical care system (previously nearly non-existent) and its design of solitary confinement. He even stood up to that pugilistic jackass "Governor" Arnold when that idiot tried to renegotiate the guards'-union contract to favor more decision-making power by the guards.

So that's who I am grateful for today. A man who studied hard, stayed with his family, stands up for the rights of the people and holds lawmakers to the liberal standard of the Constitution. I think I am going to write him a fan letter, and say thank you.

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