Name Howard Sachs | ||
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Preceded by Seat established on October 20, 1978 by 92 Stat. 1629 Alma mater Williams CollegeHarvard Law School Succeeded by Joseph Edward Stevens, Jr. Education | ||
Howard Frederic Sachs (born September 13, 1925) is a Senior United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri. He also is a former federal judicial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
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Early life and career
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Sachs earned a bachelor's degree from Williams College in 1947 and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1950. Sachs worked as a U.S. Navy Electrical Technician's Mate from 1944 until 1946 and as a law clerk for Judge Albert A. Ridge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri from 1950 until 1951. Sachs then entered private legal practice in Kansas City, where he worked as a lawyer from 1951 until 1979.
Federal judicial service
On May 17, 1979, President Jimmy Carter nominated Sachs to a newly created seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Sachs was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 25, 1979. Sachs served as that court's chief judge from 1990 until 1992. He took senior status on October 31, 1992.
On July 29, 1980 Carter nominated Sachs to be a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to fill a seat vacated when Judge Floyd Robert Gibson assumed senior status. Given that the nomination occurred after the unofficial Thurmond Rule governing judicial nominations during presidential election years, however, the Senate never took up Sachs' nomination. President Ronald Reagan initially brought forth the name of Hallmark Cards associate general counsel Judith Whittaker as a nominee to replace Gibson. After it emerged that Whittaker had supported the Equal Rights Amendment, however, conservatives opposing her nomination launched a letter-writing campaign objecting to her nomination and Whittaker eventually withdrew her name from consideration. Reagan ultimately wound up nominating U.S. District Judge John R. Gibson to the seat in February 1982. Judge John R. Gibson was confirmed on March 4, 1982.