William Lockhart Garwood

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Vocation

United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, who served from 23 January 1997 to 14 July 2011, having been nominated to the seat by President Ronald Reagan. On 15 November 1979, Garwood had been appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas by Governor Bill Clements and became the first Republican to serve on that court since the end of Reconstruction. His tenure was short-lived however, ending on 31 December 1980. His notable opinions: In United States v. Lopez, 2 F.3d 1342 (5th Cir. 1993), Judge Garwood, writing for a unanimous panel, invalidated the Gun-Free School Zone Act as an unconstitutional exercise of the Commerce Clause power. When Lopez was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, it became the first Court decision in nearly six decades to place limits on Congressional power under the Commerce Clause and was one of the first shots fired in the Rehnquist Court's Federalist Revival. In United States v. Emerson, 270 F.3d 203 (5th Cir. 2001), Judge Garwood wrote the first federal appellate decision embracing the individual-rights view of the Second Amendment. Garwood died in Austin on 14 July 2011 of a heart attack at age 79. Link to Wikipedia biography