Robert Smith Vance
| Robert Smith Vance | |
|---|---|
| Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit | |
|
In office 1977–1981 |
|
| Appointed by | Jimmy Carter |
| Preceded by | Alvin Benjamin Rubin |
| Succeeded by | Phyllis A. Kravitch |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 10, 1931 Talladega, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | December 16, 1989 (aged 58) Mountain Brook, Alabama, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Helen |
| Alma mater | University of Alabama School of Law |
Robert Smith Vance (May 10, 1931 – December 16, 1989) was a United States federal judge. He is one of the few judges in American history to have been assassinated because of their judicial service.
Born in Talladega, Alabama, Vance was the youngest of four children born to parents Harrell T. Vance and Mae Smith. He grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, graduating from Woodlawn High School. He then received a B.S. from the University of Alabama in 1950, and a J.D. from University of Alabama School of Law in 1952. While at Alabama, Vance was purportedly the head of a secret yet powerful inter-fraternity organization known as The Machine and was elected as President of the Student Government Association. After earning his law degree, Vance entered military duty as an attorney on the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps, and was stationed at the Pentagon. One of his first assignments was to serve on the team of lawyers defending the Army in hearings against charges brought by Senator Joseph McCarthy.
After his military service, Vance received an LL.M. from George Washington University Law School in 1955 and served as a law clerk to Alabama Supreme Court Justice James Mayfield. He then served a one-year stint as an attorney for the U.S. Labor Department before entering private practice in Birmingham from 1956 to 1977.
As a lawyer, Vance quickly sided with the developing civil rights movement, as shown by his participation as an intervening plaintiff in litigation that ultimately resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Reynolds v. Sims, which decided that state legislative districts had to be roughly equal in population. Vance also was the first notable Birmingham attorney to reject the unwritten "gentleman's agreement" by which all black members of a jury pool were eliminated from serving as jurors in civil cases.
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