Harry Jacob Lemley Explained

Harry Jacob Lemley
Office:Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas
Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas
Term Start:September 5, 1958
Term End:March 5, 1965
Office1:Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas
Term Start1:1948
Term End1:1958
Predecessor1:Office established
Successor1:John E. Miller
Office2:Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas
Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas
Term Start2:May 11, 1939
Term End2:September 5, 1958
Appointer2:Franklin D. Roosevelt
Predecessor2:Seat established by 52 Stat. 584
Successor2:J. Smith Henley
Birth Name:Harry Jacob Lemley
Birth Date:6 August 1883
Birth Place:Upperville, Virginia
Education:
School of Law
(LL.B.)

Harry Jacob Lemley (August 6, 1883 – March 5, 1965) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas and the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

Education and career

Born in Upperville, Virginia, Lemley received a Bachelor of Laws in 1910 from Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia. He was in private practice in Hope, Arkansas from 1912 to 1939. From 1931 to 1933, he was a member of the Arkansas State Highway Audit Commission.

Federal judicial service

Lemley was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 27, 1939, to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas and the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, to a new joint seat authorized by 52 Stat. 584. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 8, 1939, and received his commission on May 11, 1939. He served as Chief Judge of the Western District from 1948 to 1958. He assumed senior status on September 5, 1958. His service terminated on March 5, 1965, due to his death.

Role in Little Rock Integration Crisis

Lemley was originally assigned to the 1957 Little Rock Integration Crisis. He granted the school board a two-year delay in the implementation of the desegregation order, but the decision was reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Lemley then retired from full-time judicial duties, and the desegregation case passed to Ronald Davies, a North Dakota jurist sent to Little Rock by the Eighth Circuit.[1]

Notes and References

  1. [Osro Cobb]