Bruce Van Sickle

Bruce Van Sickle (February 13 1917 – April 21 2007) was an American federal judge who served from 1971 to 2002.

In 1982, he was appointed to preside over a civil rights case in the federal court for the Western District of Arkansas in which it was claimed that the state court in Fort Smith, Arkansas was sentencing people to jail if they were financially unable to pay a fine, e.g., the alternative sentence of $50 or five days in jail even though the state and federal courts had ruled such a sentence to be in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the American Constitution.

Judge Van Sickle, a Republican, ruled the practice unconstitutional and hit Fort Smith with an award to the Plaintiff of attorney fees; his injunction ended the practice. As he told the Plaintiff's lawyer, Greg Karber, by way of encouraging suits against institutional impropriety, "the bigger they are, the louder they pop", when poked.

It was, in part, the motivation Karber needed to pursue other civil rights cases for decades thereafter. fact|date=December 2007

Personal life

Van Sickle was a member of, among other groups, the Elks, the Toastmasters, the Shriners, and the Geriatric Trail Club.

He was survived by his wife, Dorothy; four children; six grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and five siblings.

External links

* [http://www.court.state.nd.us/court/news/vansickle.htm Full obituary and biography]