Ronnie L. White
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Ronnie L. White (born 1953 in St. Louis, Missouri) was a judge on several Missouri courts and is currently a practicing attorney.
White graduated from St. Louis Community College in 1977 and St. Louis University in 1979. He earned a law degree from the University of Missouri–Kansas City in 1983. He worked as a public defender in St. Louis and an attorney in various other government offices and was a Missouri Representative for six years. From 1993 to 1994, he served on the St. Louis City Council. In May 1994, Governor Mel Carnahan appointed him a judge for the Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals.
Carnahan appointed White to the Supreme Court of Missouri in October 1995. He was the court's first African-American Chief Justice, from 2003 to 2005.[1] White retired from the court on July 6, 2007.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated White for a federal district court seat. White's nomination passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, but ran into resistance from then-Missouri Senator John Ashcroft in 1999. Ashcroft claimed White was "pro-criminal" due to White's opinions in death penalty cases before the Supreme Court and cited opposition from Missouri police associations that were later discovered to be all-white.[2] Carnahan and other Democrats criticized Republican opposition to the nomination, and it quickly became embroiled with racial overtones and an issue in the Missouri Senate election the following year.[3] The nomination failed in a party-line vote in the full Senate. Ashcroft's opposition to White came back to haunt him both in the 2000 Senate election (which he narrowly lost for a variety of reasons) and during his confirmation hearings when he was appointed Attorney General.
White is currently practicing law as a partner in the law firm Holloran, White & Schwarz.
[edit] References
- ^ "New Chief Justice of Missouri Supreme Court". Jet. July 14, 2003.
- ^ Michael Grunwald. "Missouri Senate Race Is Heating Up Early". Washington Post. October 23, 1999.
- ^ Ben White. "Deepening Rift Over Judge Vote". Washington Post. October 7, 1999.
[edit] External link
- Judge Ronnie White on the Missouri Supreme Court website