Joseph Sneed

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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 Ninth Circuit. ^[1] 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. He is the father of Carly Fiorina, chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005.

Sneed was regarded as a conservative judge on a liberal bench. The Ninth Circuit became notably liberal "with an influx of appointees by President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s", leading Sneed to say in 1984, "The Carter people have a different way of looking at the world, and we often divide on what you could call political lines. I'm usually on the losing side on panels in this circuit."^[2]

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]

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] Former law clerk, Nancy Rapoport, recalled that "Even though he was a Nixon appointee and I was much more liberal than he, he always impressed me as being very willing to do whatever the law actually mandated (more so than some of the more liberal judges on the court, who were known for bending the law to suit their own purposes) -- in that sense, I always thought of him as a true conservative." ^[3] 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. ^[4]

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Sneed Biography from the Federal Judicial Center.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 San Francisco Chronicle, "Joseph Sneed dies - longtime 9th Circuit judge", February 14, 2008
↑ http://nancyrapoport.blogspot.com/2008/02/judge-joseph-t-sneed-iii.html
↑ http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/15/local/me-sneed15<ref> ==Education==
- Southwestern University, B.B.A., 1941
- University of Texas School of Law, LL.B., 1947
- Harvard Law School, S.J.D., 1958<ref name="bio"/>
==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<ref name="bio"/>
==Family== Raised in Calvert, Texas, Sneed played high school football in spite of a congenital condition that caused his head to tip to one side and gave him limited movement in his neck and shoulders. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces during World War II. While stationed in Texas, he met and, in 1944, married Medelon Juergens. Juergens, a member of the Women's Army Corps when they met, was a talented painter. She preceded him in death by 11 years after a 54-year marriage. The couple had three children: Carly Fiorina, Clara Sneed and Joseph Sneed IV.<ref name=sneed/><ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703499404574558302616877092.html ''Wall Street Journal'', "She Wants to Reboot California"]</li></ol></ref>