U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay has urged President Obama to withdraw any consideration of appointing Judge John A. Ross as the U.S. District Court judge because of his “judicial activism” and “blatant unfairness.”
Ross is currently a judge for the St. Louis County Circuit Court. On Dec. 1, Obama nominated Ross to replace Charles Shaw, a U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri, who is black.
Ross, who is white, is the presiding judge in the temporary restraining order case for the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District in Normandy. Currently the fire district can’t spend a dime without Ross’ approval.
In a Dec. 6 letter to the president, Clay pointed to Ross’ involvement in the Northeast fire district as “jeopardizing the integrity of our judicial system.”
On Oct. 20, 2009, Kevin Buchek, the chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Village of Bel-Nor, petitioned the court to freeze the Northeast fire district’s spending. Recently, Ross ruled to extend the court order until February 2011.
Clay said that Ross “has deprived the board of directors elected to serve the Northeast fire district of their rights to manage the district as well as disenfranchised the voters of the district by substituting his political decisions in place of the priorities of the elected officials in this majority black fire district.”
Mayor of Normandy Patrick Green agrees wholeheartedly.
Green said that the fire district serves 16 municipalities and a majority of them are led by African-American mayors.
“There are many times that Judge Ross chose to follow the media and not the law,” Green said.
One example was former Fire Chief Angelia Elgin’s pay. In December 2009, Elgin became the first black female fire chief in Missouri and had more credentials than the black male fire chief who preceded her. However, Ross ordered the district to pay her less than the previous fire chief, following an article about her pay published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
In a letter sent to U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill on Nov. 20, a group of elected officials argued that Ross “effectively ordered the board to discriminate against the district’s female fire chief, in violation of the federal equal pay act.”
McCaskill was Obama’s primary advisor in making the federal judicial appointment, which must be ratified by the U.S. Senate.
A spokesman for the White House had not responded to a request for comment by press time. A spokesperson for McCaskill said, “Claire’s goal is to recommend strong candidates for judicial positions and is committed to making sure that it is a diverse group.”
Circuit Judge Angela Turner Quigless and Missouri Court of Appeals Judge Nannette Baker were the other top contenders for the nomination. Both are African-American.
The letter to McCaskill about Ross continued, “He even presumed to direct the district directors as to whom they can hire, how much they can pay, what they can buy, and thus has usurped their statutory powers to manage the district.”
Ross’ Special Master receives about $3,000 per month over the past year at taxpayers’ cost, the letter states.
The letter writers include state Rep. Rochelle Walton Gray, Democratic Committeemen Anthony Weaver and James Cotter, City of Jennings Councilwoman Yolonda Fountain Henderson and Elbert Walton, the former fire district’s attorney.
Walton spearheaded the election of the former board majority whose decisions – including the payment of lavish attorney fees to Walton – resulted in the filing against the district and the restraining order.
As for Quigless and Baker, the other top contenders for the nomination who are African-American, a source close to McCaskill said that the black political and legal communities were divided in their support between them. This division made the senator lean towards the candidate whom the white legal community was fully behind.
The source close to McCaskill said the senator was aware of the racial sensitivities surrounding the Northeast fire district case, but that Ross was “only calling balls and strikes” in his rulings.
In a previous federal nomination, McCaskill recommended Richard G. Callahan for U.S. Attorney in Eastern Missouri, when the black legal community had argued for Gabe Gore, an eminently qualified African-American with federal prosecution experience. Obama nominated Callahan, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
