First portrait post of 2026 is Judge Joseph Oscar Eaton. He was a state senator before his time as a judge. FBA write up below.
Judge Joseph Oscar Eaton was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson and served on the district court from 1967-2008. Prior to his judicial service, Judge Eaton served in the U.S. Air Force, reaching the rank of major. In Diaz v. Weinberger, 361 F. Supp. 1 (S.D. Fla. 1973), a three-judge panel including Judge Eaton struck down the five-year continuous residency requirement for non-citizens seeking Medicare supplemental insurance, holding that it violated the Fifth Amendment due process clause by discriminatorily excluding lawful immigrant seniors—such as Cuban refugees—from essential medical benefits without a rational basis.
3 comments:
Very deceptive and misleading post. While Judge Eaton did rule that the statute was unconstitutional, that decision was overruled by a unanimous Supreme Court (Justice Stevens authored the opinion), 96 S.Ct. 1883. You leave readers with the impression that this opinion is good law. It is not. A bit of trivia. Bruce Rogow represented the appellees before the Supremes.
Jude Eaton was a remarkably smart and fair judge. So much so that in a case I had before him I trusted him to strictly follow the law and waived a jury trial. I feared that a jury would consider my defense theory "a mere technicality." It was the only time I had ever waived a jury. Judge Eaton acquitted my client.
Judge Eaton was one of a kind. He was bright, hard-working, and had a great sense of humor. One of my favorite Eaton stories involved a dear friend and former partner, Elizabeth du Fresne. It was back in the day when tou had to pay the trial court $5 when you filed a notice of appeal and then the filing fee in the then Fifth.
In any event, Elizabeth, not surprisingly, was at the very end of the last day to file an appeal, went to the Clerk's office and did not have five dollars. She went into the hallway looking for someone who would lend her the five. She came upon Judge Eaton, who had ruled against her. She asked him for five, which he gave her, and she rushed in to perfect the appeal. Twenty minutes later, when she came out the door, there was Judge Eaton leaning up against the wall, smoking his pipe. He looked at her and said: "Young lady, did you borrow the five to appeal me?" She admitted that she had. He just nodded and as he walked down the hall said: "Balls, big balls."
Judge Eaton was very resected and he earned it. There are so many very favorable stories about him floating around, and he came from a day when every one of the judges on the bench with maybe one exception, were very highly thought of and selected only for ability and talent. Today, when a decision is handed down, you first ask who appointed the judge and based upon the answer determine whether you should care or not. That was not the case back then.
We are all blessed with talent on our court, but these days we do not take as much comfort from the words of the Chief Justice that there are not Obama judges, Reagan judges, Biden judges, Bush judges . . . just judges, but judges like Joe Eaton harken back to the glory days.
Post a Comment