Albert Tate Jr.

Albert A. Tate Jr. (September 23, 1920 – March 27, 1986), was a long-serving Louisiana judge. A Democrat, Tate served as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans and earlier served as a Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court also based in New Orleans.

Education and career

Tate was born in Opelousas, the seat of government of St. Landry Parish to Albert Tate, Sr., and Adelaide (née Therry) Tate. He graduated from New York Military Academy in 1937, then attended Yale University from 1937 to 1938, then Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge from 1938 to 1939, and George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1941. He received his Bachelor of Laws from Yale Law School in 1947; he attended Yale from 1941 to 1942 and 1946 to 1947. He also attended LSU Law School from 1947 to 1948, when he obtained legal certification in Louisiana. During World War II, Tate was a special agent in the United States Army in the Far East from 1942 to 1945.^[1] On April 23, 1949, Tate married the former Claire Jeanmard. The couple had a daughter and four sons. Tate was active in the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Rotary International, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic men's organization.

Legal career

Tate was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1948 and practiced law in Ville Platte, the seat of Evangeline Parish, from 1948 to 1954, when he became judge of the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal. Thereafter, he was presiding judge of Louisiana's Third Circuit for a decade; one of his law clerks was Bobby Culpepper, later a long-term lawyer and Democratic politician in Jonesboro, Louisiana.^[2] Tate became associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court for a brief tenure in 1958 and again for nearly the entire decade of the 1970s. During his long legal career, Tate held many judicial committee chairmanships and took an active role in promoting legal and court reforms. He was vice-chairman of the Committee on Court Modernization in 1972 to 1974 and chairman of the Committee to Implement Standards of Criminal Justice from 1975-76. He was on the board of editors of Judges Journal from 1972 to 1975. Tate was a member of both the Louisiana Bar Association and the American Judicature Society from 1948 to 1986. He chaired the Louisiana Judicial Commission from 1968 to 1970. He was a delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1973. He was chairman of the style and drafting section. The constitution which Tate drafted was approved by voters in the spring of 1974. He was also a law school professor at LSU from 1967 to 1968, while he was simultaneously serving on the state Third Circuit Court.^[1]

Federal judicial service

Tate was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on July 31, 1979, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 4, 1979, and received his commission on October 5, 1979. His service was terminated on March 27, 1986, due to his death in New Orleans, Louisiana.^[3] He was succeeded by Judge John Malcolm Duhé Jr.^[1]

Legal writings

Tate wrote more than sixty legal articles, which were published in a variety of professional journals, as well as a legal textbook and a legal bibliography. He authored nearly fifty other articles on other topics. The Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers presents the "Albert Tate Award" in Tate's honor. One of Tate's colleagues on the Louisiana Supreme Court, Mack Elwin Barham wrote the article "A Civilian for Our Times: Justice Albert Tate Jr." in the Louisiana Law Review 47 (May 1987) to honor his colleague's contributions to the law.

References

Sources

• Albert Tate Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• "Albert Tate", A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. 2 (1988), pp. 780–781
• AP. "Ex-Louisiana Leader To Be Named a Judge".