Joyce Hens Green

Judge Joyce Hens Green (b.1928) is a Senior United States District Court Judge for the District of Columbia.

Childhood

Green was born in 1928 in New York, New York. Her father was a psychiatrist and her mother was a homemaker. She had one brother. Her parents encouraged her to go to college and to medical school, at a time when few women chose professional careers.

Education

Judge Green graduated from the University of Maryland, receiving a B.A. in 1949. She entered the University of Maryland Law School and transferred to the George Washington University Law School, receiving a J.D. from that institution in two years, in 1951. She also received an honorary Doctor of Laws from George Washington in 1994 and has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of Towson High School.

Marriage and family life

Green was married to attorney [http://cgi.cs.arizona.edu/~gmt/gdb/gdb.cgi/SG00NTE Samuel Green] (d.1988) and had three children: Michael Green, June Green, and James Harry Green. She has several grandchildren.

Professional Experience

Judge Green practiced law in the District of Columbia and Virginia until she was appointed Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 1968, where she served until her appointment to the Federal bench in 1979. President Jimmy Carter appointed Judge Green to United States District Court for the District of Columbia in May 1979.

Judge Green was a member of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from May 1988 until May 1995, and served as its Presiding Judge from May 1990 until 1995. She changed her status to Senior Judge in July 1995.

Professional Associations

Judge Green is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Judicature Society, the Federal Bar Association and the National Association of Women Judges.

On June 16 2004 Green was the recipient of an American Inns of Court Professionalism Award.ref|InnsOfCourt

Significant Cases

IRS v. The Church of Scientology

In 1992, Judge Green ruled in favor of the Church of Scientology in the case of ref|Scientology on a pretrial motion for summary judgment.

Release of BCCI's frozen assets

On September 1 1995 Green Ordered $393 million seized from the Bank of Credit and Commerce International turned over to the bank's victims.ref|DoJ950901 BCCI had been involved in criminal activity and its assets had been freed in 1992. Green had heard, and ruled on, three challenges to the release of the seized funds..

FEC v. The Christian Coalition

Green ruled against the Federal Election Commission inFederal Election Commission v. The Christian Coalition Civil Action No. 96-1781 Opinion & Order; and Judgment, filed August 2, 1999.ref|DcD990803ref|WaPo1999 The FEC had challenged the propriety of the Christian Coalition's distribution of voter guides, on the grounds it had been too closely tied to large corporate donors.

Green's 108 page judgement had supported the FEC in two instances; when the Christian Coalition had broken FEC guidelines in their explicit advocacy of the re-election of Newt Gingrich; and when the Christian Coalition had handed over their membership list to Senate candidate Oliver North.

In re Guantanamo Detainee Cases

On September 15, 2004, Judge Green was appointed the coordinating judge for all Guantanamo Bay cases.ref|DcD040915 On January 31 2005, Judge Green ruled that:

(1) detainees had the fundamental Fifth Amendment right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law;
(2) complaints stated a claim for violation of due process based on Combatant Status Review Tribunal's ("CSRT") extensive reliance on classified information in its resolution of “enemy combatant” status of detainees, the detainees' inability to review that information, and the prohibition of assistance by counsel jointly deprived detainees of sufficient notice of the factual bases for their detention and denied them a fair opportunity to challenge their incarceration;
(3) due process required that CSRT sufficiently consider whether the evidence upon which the tribunal relied in making its “enemy combatant” determinations had been obtained through torture;
(4) complaints stated a claim for violation of due process based on the government's employment of an overly broad definition of “enemy combatant” subject to indefinite detention; and
(5) Geneva Conventions applied to the Taliban detainees, but not to members of al Qaeda terrorist organization. ["In re Guantanamo Detainee Cases", 355 F.Supp.2d 443 (D.D.C. 2005).] ref|WaPo050201ref|Abc050131ref|WaPo050201b

Notes

References

# [http://www.innsofcourt.org/Content/Default.aspx?Id=342 Hon. Joyce Hens Green] , "American Inns of Court Professionalism Award", June 16 2004
# [http://www.ronsorg.nl/scientologychurch/courtcases/IRS1992.htm Church of Scientology v. Internal Revenue Service] , "ronsorg.nl", April 15 1992
# [http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/Pre_96/September95/465.txt.html Federal Court releases $393 million fdr BCCI victims] , "Department of Justice", September 1 1995
# [http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/96-1781.pdf Federal Election Commission v. Christian Coalition] , "United States Court of the District of Columbia, August 3 1999
# [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/aug99/fec3.htm A Victory for Christian Coalition] , "Washington Post", August 3 1999
# [http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/GuantanamoResolution.pdf Resolution of the Executive Session] , "United States Court of the District of Columbia, September 15 2004", resolution assigning Green the senior role in reviewing Guantanamo detainees legal requests
#note label|WaPo050201|5|a [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51007-2005Jan31.html Judge Rules Detainee Tribunals Illegal] , "Washington Post", February 1 2005
# [http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=459497 Judge Backs Guantanamo Detainee Challenges: Judge Allows Some Guantanamo Detainees to Challenge Confinement, Criticizes White House Policy] , "ABC News", January 31, 2005
# [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55674-2005Feb1.html Judicial Wake-Up Call] , "Washington Post", February 1 2005
# [http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/01/detainee_ruling/index.html Righting wrongs for Guantanamo detainees] , "Salon (magazine)", February 1 2005
# [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3868-2005Mar26.html Panel Ignored Evidence on Detainee: U.S. Military Intelligence, German Authorities Found No Ties to Terrorists] , "Washington Post", March 27 2005
# [http://wid.ap.org/documents/detainees/idr.pdf Mustafa Aid Idir's dossier (.pdf)] from his CSRT, pages 26-27 of 53.

External links

* [http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/joyce-green-bio.html Judge Green's official bio]
* [http://www.dcbar.org/for_lawyers/resources/legends_in_the_law/green.cfm Legends in the Law: A Conversation with Joyce Hens Green] , "District of Columbia Bar Report", 1999