Education
Princeton University.
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William Garwood
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Garwood received a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University in 1952 and an Bachelor of Laws from the University of Texas School of Law in 1955. Upon graduating first in his law school class, he clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for John R. Brown, a judge whom he would later count as a colleague on that same court. He served for three years as a Judge Advocate General officer in the United States Army and then returned to Austin, Texas, where he entered private practice with the firm of Graves, Dougherty, Hearon, Moody & Garwood.
On November 15, 1979, Garwood was appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas by Governor Bill Clements and became the first Republican to serve on that court since the end of Reconstruction.
Notably, his father had served for a decade on the Texas high court, from January 14, 1948 to December 31, 1958, and is still regarded as one of Texas"s finest jurists. The younger Garwood"s tenure was shorter-lived however, ending on December 31, 1980.
As he was fond of joking, "I was returned to private practice one-year later by popular mandate". On September 17, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated Garwood to a new seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit created by 92 Statistics
1629 (President Jimmy Carter previously had nominated Andrew L Jefferson, Junior to the seat, but the United States Senate had declined to act on Jefferson"s nomination before Carter"s presidency ended).
Garwood was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 21, 1981 and received his commission on October 26, 1981. He assumed senior status on January 23, 1997, but maintained a nearly-full workload on the court until his death. Notable opinions
In United States v.
Lopez, 2 F.3d 1342 (5th Cir 1993), Judge Garwood, writing for a unanimous panel, invalidated the Gun-Free School Zone Acting as an unconstitutional exercise of the Commerce Clause power.
When Lopez was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, it became the first Court decision in nearly six decades to place limits on Congressional power under the Commerce Clause and was one of the first shots fired in the Rehnquist Court"s Federalist Revival. In United States v. Emerson, 270 F.3d 203 (5th Cir 2001), Judge Garwood wrote the first federal appellate decision embracing the individual-rights view of the Second Amendment.
Garwood died in Austin on July 14, 2011 of a heart attack at age 79.
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Born
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Died
July 14, 2011 (aged 79) -
Nationality
United States