Born in Cleveland, Jim came to us from Western Reserve Academy. At Princeton he majored in the Woodrow Wilson School, joined Colonial, chaired the Tiger magazine, and was NROTC battalion executive officer. He served on the Freshman Council, the Campus Fund Drive, and the Undergraduate Schools Committee. Following Navy service and George Washington University Law School, Jim practiced with the Washington, D.C., firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering for 29 years. In 1969 he took a three-year leave of absence to run the Jackson, Miss., office of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. From 1979 to 1984 he served as our class secretary, and in 1991 he was elected president of the D.C. Bar Association.
President Clinton appointed Jim in 1994 to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. While on the bench Jim granted a petition of habeas corpus for a Yemeni prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, a controversial decision upheld by the Supreme Court. While serving in a collateral appointment by Chief Justice Rehnquist to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which authorized domestic surveillance of foreign activities, Jim concluded that the Court was acting as a policy-making body, not as a court, and resigned in protest. Following his and others’ testimony, Congress amended the court’s authority to conform to Jim’s views.
Jim is survived by his wife of 60 years, Berit; children Stephen ’82, Catherine, and Peter; six grandchildren; and his twin sister, Ellen. We have extended condolences.