Ray Thornton

Infobox_Congressman
name =Ray Thornton


date of birth= birth date and age|1928|07|16
place of birth= Conway, Arkansas
death_date =
death_place =
state = Arkansas
district = ushr|Arkansas|2|2^nd
term_start = January 3, 1991
term_end = January 3, 1997
preceded = Tommy F. Robinson
succeeded = Vic Snyder
state2 = Arkansas
district2 = ushr|Arkansas|4|4^th
term_start2 = January 3, 1973
term_end2 = January 3, 1979
preceded2 = David Pryor
succeeded2 = Beryl Anthony, Jr.
party = Democrat
religion =
spouse =

Raymond Hoyt "Ray" Thornton, Jr. (born July 16, 1928, in Conway, Arkansas) is a former U.S. Representative from the U.S. state of Arkansas.

Thornton earned a degree in political science from Yale University and, later, a law degree from the University of Arkansas. He served in the United States Navy during the Korean War, earning the rank of lieutenant.

Thornton returned to law school after returning from Korea; obtaining his law degree in 1956. After election as Arkansas Attorney General in 1970, he was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1972. He defeated fellow Democrat Richard S. Arnold of Texarkana in the primary. Thornton went on to serve three terms in the House. He served as a member of the Judiciary Committee considering Articles of Impeachment against President Richard Nixon, and was included in the group of three southern Democrats and four moderate Republicans who drafted the articles adopted by the Committee.

Thornton did not run for a fourth term in the House. Instead, he ran for the Senate but narrowly lost in the Democratic primary to David Pryor. Pryor then defeated a liberal Republican, William T. Kelly, in the general election.

After his defeat in the Senate race, Thornton became involved in education, serving as the president of Arkansas State University and then the University of Arkansas from 1984 to 1990. In 1991, Thornton ran for Congress in another district. His former popularity had not faded, and he easily beat his opponent. He left Congress after another three terms, retiring in 1997.

Thornton served as a justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court from 1997 to 2005. After retiring from the court, he became the first public service fellow for the William Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock.

ee also

* "U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton" — in 1995, this case overturned term limits for U.S. Senators and Representatives.

References

* Image and Reflection: A Pictorial History of the University of Arkansas; Ethel Simpson. U of Ark. Press, 1991

External links

CongBio|T000243 Retrieved on 2008-03-31