Federal Judicial Service
On July 13, 1951, President Harry S. Truman nominated Perry to be a judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The United States Senate confirmed Perry's nomination on August 21, 1951.
During his tenure, Perry presided over a large number of high-profile trials, including an 18-month-long wrongful-death suit initiated by the survivors and family members of two members of the Black Panther Party who were killed during a 1969 raid on the group's headquarters. At the end of the trial, which at that time was the longest trial before a federal court jury in U.S. history, Perry dismissed all charges against law enforcement officials who had been sued for $47 million in a wrongful-death suit when jurors could not reach a verdict. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit eventually overturned Perry and ordered a new trial, but an out-of-court settlement eventually was reached.
Perry took senior status on November 29, 1971.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Sam Perry
Famous quotes containing the words federal, judicial and/or service:
“There are always those who are willing to surrender local self-government and turn over their affairs to some national authority in exchange for a payment of money out of the Federal Treasury. Whenever they find some abuse needs correction in their neighborhood, instead of applying the remedy themselves they seek to have a tribunal sent on from Washington to discharge their duties for them, regardless of the fact that in accepting such supervision they are bartering away their freedom.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)