Free Republic

Excerpt - U.S. District Court Judge George Howard Jr. of Pine Bluff, whose tenacity against racial injustice played a major role in prompting and defining his history-making legal career, died early Saturday at Jefferson Regional Medical Center. Howard, 82, Arkansas’ first black federal judge, had been battling failing health for some time. “Judge Howard was a lawyer’s lawyer and a truly outstanding judge,” said Pine Bluff attorney Robert Morehead, who began practicing law in 1970. “He helped so many people both in his work with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and as an attorney. He...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard of Greenville has been appointed by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The court, commonly referred to as America's Secret Court, considers requests for surveillance and physical search orders from the U.S. Department of Justice and various U.S. intelligence agencies. This court has nationwide jurisdiction to authorize the U.S. government to conduct electronic surveillance and physical searches for national security purposes when the target is a foreign power or when an individual is acting as an agent for a foreign power. The Supreme Court Chief Justice...