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Anna
Diggs Taylor '54, Alumna and Federal Judge,
Profiled in November 2006 Essence Magazine
Copyright
2006 Essence Communications, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Courage
Under Fire: Woman Shaping Our World
by Kemba J. Dunham
Judge
Anna Diggs Taylor's ruling against the government's practice
of wiretapping Americans sent a flood of criticism her way
and may alter the Administration's war on terror.
Anna Diggs
Taylor is not one to shy away from controversy. Over the course
of a legal career that spans nearly five decades, Taylor defended
civil rights workers in Mississippi during the 1960's; banned
nativity scenes on city property in Birmingham, Alabama, and
Dearborn, Michigan; and in 1984, publicly accused a chief
judge in Detroit of making racially insensitive remarks.
She is
the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge in Michigan,
but the 73-year-old jurist might be most remembered for standing
up to the powerful Bush machine. This past August she ruled
that the wiretapping of millions of Americans by the National
Security Agency is unconstitutional, and she ordered that
it be stopped. Her decision, based on a lawsuit by the American
Civil Liberties Union, concluded that President Bush violated
the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. "There
are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created
by the Constitution," she wrote in her opinion. While
the case was filed in Detroit because the ACLU has a number
of clients in Michigan, the ruling may have broader implications,
changing the way the government retrieves information on terror
suspects nationwide. When reached at her home, Taylor declined
to comment, saying the law forbids her to discuss the case.
The decision
is being appealed and has led to sharp criticism from Bush
loyalists as well as from legal experts who agreed with her
conclusion but questioned her reasoning and rhetoric. Still,
those who know Taylor aren't surprised by her gutsiness. "She
taught me that you have to be able to stand on your own two
feet," says Ronda McLean, a New York attorney who clerked
for Taylor from 1983 to 1985 after graduating from Yale Law
School. McLean, who now works in the legal department at Time
Inc., says that during her clerkship, Taylor would hold debates
with her in an effort to help shape her legal reasoning. Because
of that experience, "I'm not afraid to take a stance
that others don't agree with," says McLean.
Taylor
is a native of Washington, D.C., whose father was a Howard
University treasurer and mother a homemaker and business teacher.
After earning an economics degree at Barnard College in 1954
and being one of five women in her class at Yale to earn a
law degree a few years later, Taylor found it tough to land
a job as an attorney in New York City or Washington, DC Since
then the mother of two has worked hard to create opportunities
for women and minorities, according to Markeisha Miner, who
clerked for Taylor from 2002 to 2004 after graduating from
the University of Michigan Law School. "She opened doors
for me that may not have otherwise been opened," says
Miner of the woman who made the controversial ruling. "She
always told me to stick with my beliefs."
This
article originally appeared on page 158 of the November, 2006
issue of Essence Magazine. Reprinted with permission
from Essence Communications, Inc.
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