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Norton to Speak at Judge Bryant Ceremony Climaxing Hard Fought Court Naming Struggle
October 30, 2006
Washington, DC- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will speak at a ceremony at 4 pm TODAY to dedicate the William B. Bryant Annex to the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse. The Annex is named for the late Judge Bryant, the first African American to serve as Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, as a result of a bill Norton fought for over two years to get enacted and signed into law last November. The ceremony will take place in the Annex Atrium of the federal courthouse located at 333 Constitution Avenue, NW.
Bryant, who remained an active District Court judge until his death on November 13, 2005, was a longtime D.C. resident and graduate of the D.C. Public Schools whose distinguished legal career was established practicing law in segregated Washington in the 1940s and 1950s. He graduated from Howard University and Howard Law School, where he was first in his class. Judge Bryant first achieved legal distinction in post World War II Washington at a time when Blacks were denied admission to the D.C. Bar and even to use the Bar library. As segregation relaxed, Bryant’s legal reputation, including winning landmark cases, made him a natural to become the first African American Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in 1951. Among his many notable cases is the landmark Mallory v. United States, 354 U.S. 449 (1957), where the Supreme Court ruled that an arrested person must be promptly brought before a judicial officer. President Lyndon Johnson later appointed Bryant to the District Court here in 1965.
Chief Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had visited Norton in 2004 to ask for the designation at the request of all of the judges of his court without the knowledge of Judge Bryant. Norton’s first Bryant bill easily passed the House that year but met roadblocks in the Senate because Bryant was still a sitting judge, until Senator John Warner (R-VA), who served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office with Judge Bryant, broke a logjam in 2005, and succeeded in adding the Bryant amendment to a bill naming a federal building in Detroit after Rosa Parks. The House followed suit by approving the amended bill. The President signed the bill on November 11, two days before Judge Bryant passed away. At the time Norton said, “My deep sadness at the passing of Judge Bryant will be shared by residents in every walk of life throughout the city and especially among its lawyers. My sense of loss is mitigated only by the passage of the bill before Judge Bryant’s death.”
Bryant, who remained an active District Court judge until his death on November 13, 2005, was a longtime D.C. resident and graduate of the D.C. Public Schools whose distinguished legal career was established practicing law in segregated Washington in the 1940s and 1950s. He graduated from Howard University and Howard Law School, where he was first in his class. Judge Bryant first achieved legal distinction in post World War II Washington at a time when Blacks were denied admission to the D.C. Bar and even to use the Bar library. As segregation relaxed, Bryant’s legal reputation, including winning landmark cases, made him a natural to become the first African American Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in 1951. Among his many notable cases is the landmark Mallory v. United States, 354 U.S. 449 (1957), where the Supreme Court ruled that an arrested person must be promptly brought before a judicial officer. President Lyndon Johnson later appointed Bryant to the District Court here in 1965.
Chief Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had visited Norton in 2004 to ask for the designation at the request of all of the judges of his court without the knowledge of Judge Bryant. Norton’s first Bryant bill easily passed the House that year but met roadblocks in the Senate because Bryant was still a sitting judge, until Senator John Warner (R-VA), who served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office with Judge Bryant, broke a logjam in 2005, and succeeded in adding the Bryant amendment to a bill naming a federal building in Detroit after Rosa Parks. The House followed suit by approving the amended bill. The President signed the bill on November 11, two days before Judge Bryant passed away. At the time Norton said, “My deep sadness at the passing of Judge Bryant will be shared by residents in every walk of life throughout the city and especially among its lawyers. My sense of loss is mitigated only by the passage of the bill before Judge Bryant’s death.”
Chief Judge Hogan, Senator Warner, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, U.S. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg, and General Services Administrator Lurita Doan also are scheduled to take part in today’s ceremony with Norton.
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