The judicial building where much of his historic legal career took place will now carry the name of Judge Clyde S. Cahill.
St. Louis Circuit Court judges voted unanimously in passage of a resolution on Monday Nov. 18, 2024, to rename the Civil Courts Building and christen it the Honorable Clyde S. Cahill Courthouse.
Cahill’s son Randall Cahill told judges at Monday’s Court En Banc said his family is honored that the courthouse will have his father’s name and legacy attached to its walls.
“His decisions were on the cutting edge of so many things that affected our city,” Cahill said in the same court where dozens of legal stalwarts, civic dignitaries and Cahill family members gathered in October 2005 to honor the late Cahill after his death.
Cahill passed on August 18, 2004, at the age of 81.
“I just want to say thank you to everyone. I want to say that from the bottom of my heart.”
“His entire adult life was dedicated to a consistent and demonstrated commitment to truly equal justice for all,” the resolution says in part.
“While Judge Cahill did not always stand alone, he was a leader, and his career was consistently and valiantly one that put equal protection of law as his guiding principle…”
Judge Cahill attended St. Louis elementary schools and was a graduate of Vashon High School.
He served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. After returning to his native St. Louis, Cahill graduated from the Saint Louis University Law School in 1951.
He engaged in private practice until 1954 when he joined the staff of the Circuit Attorney of the City of St. Louis. In 1961, he again returned to private practice while also serving as a special assistant circuit attorney until 1964.
From 1958 to 1965, Cahill also served as chief legal advisor to the Missouri NAACP and filed the first lawsuit in Missouri to implement the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. He was also involved in other civil rights litigation in Missouri, Arkansas and Illinois.
In 1966, Judge Cahill was appointed regional attorney for the United States Office of Economic Opportunity in Kansas City, where he worked to implement governmental policies directed toward fighting the “War on Poverty.”
In 1968, he returned to St. Louis as general manager of the Human Development Corporation of Metropolitan St. Louis and served until 1972, when he assumed the responsibilities of executive director and general counsel for the Legal Aid Society of the City and County of St. Louis.
From 1975 to 1980, Cahill served as a circuit judge on the 22nd Judicial Circuit of the State of Missouri in St. Louis. He was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on May 23, 1980.
The St. Louis Board of Alderman recently passed board bill 92 to rename the Civil Courts Building and sent it to St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones for her signature.
Court committees are planning to have commemorative plaques honoring Judge Cahill placed at the entrances of the courthouse at 10 North Tucker Boulevard.
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