Today we're featuring the portrait of Judge Eugene Spellman. Like a few of the judges we've featured before, Judge Spellman was a "Double Gator," getting his undergraduate degree from UF in 1953 and his law degree in 1955. Appointed to the federal bench by Jimmy Carter in 1979, he served until 1991 (leaving the bench just a week before his death from cancer at the age of 60). His most historically significant public case appears to be the Haitian-refugee litigation in Louis v. Nelson / Jean v. Nelson, discussed more below.
I don't know much about Judge Spellman, but it's clear that his colleagues must have liked him because the attorney lounge in the Wilkie D. Ferguson courthouse is named after him.
FBA write up here:
Judge Eugene Spellman was nominated to the district court by President Carter in 1979; he served on the court until 1991. In 1982, Judge Spellman held in Louis v. Nelson, 544 F. Supp. 973 (S.D. Fla. 1982), that a policy by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which resulted in the detention of Haitian migrants, was unlawful, resulting in the release of hundreds of migrants who had been unlawfully detained. Known for his humor and empathy, Judge Spellman was remembered as follows: “His personal and professional integrity and the intellectual rigor with which he confronted his tasks were beyond reproach.”
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