Damon Keith
| Damon Keith | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit | |
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In office October 21, 1977 – May 1, 1995 |
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| Appointed by | Jimmy Carter |
| Preceded by | Wade McCree |
| Succeeded by | Richard Griffin |
| Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan | |
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In office December 13, 1975 – October 21, 1977 |
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| Preceded by | Frederick Kaess |
| Succeeded by | Cornelia Kennedy |
| Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan | |
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In office October 12, 1967 – October 21, 1977 |
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| Appointed by | Lyndon Johnson |
| Preceded by | Thomas Thornton |
| Succeeded by | Patricia Boyle |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Damon Jerome Keith July 4, 1922 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Education |
West Virginia State University (BA) Howard University (JD) Wayne State University (LLM) |
Damon Jerome Keith (born July 4, 1922) is a Senior Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Keith grew up in Detroit, where he graduated from Northwestern High School in 1939; Keith then moved on to West Virginia State College (B.A., 1943), Howard University School of Law (J.D., 1949), and Wayne State University Law School (LL.M., 1956). Keith married Rachel Boone in 1953 and they had three daughters. Rachel died on January 4, 2007.
In 1964 Keith was elected co-chair of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission with John Feikens and was a key player in the tumultuous times following the Detroit race riots. In 1967 Senator Philip Hart suggested Keith to President Lyndon Johnson, who nominated Keith to his seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Keith eventually rose to Chief Judge of the District Court. In 1977 he was nominated to the Sixth Circuit by President Jimmy Carter where he has remained.
In 1974 Keith was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. Keith is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. In 2008 Keith received an honorary doctorate in law from Harvard University.
In United States v. Sinclair (1971), Keith famously ruled that Nixon's Attorney General John N. Mitchell had to disclose the transcripts of illegal wiretaps that Mitchell had authorized without first obtaining a search warrant. Keith's decision was upheld by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court's landmark decision in United States v. U.S. District Court (1972) (also known as "the Keith case") contributed in 1978 to president Jimmy Carter signing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). That decision is commemorated as a "Michigan Legal Milestone" called "the Uninvited Ear" and erected by the State Bar of Michigan.
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