Personal Injury Solicitor Lawyers: John Payton, a lawyer who argued bias cases before Supreme Court, dies at 65

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
- The Washington Post Print SubscriptionConversationsToday's PaperGoing Out GuideJobsCarsReal EstateRentalsClassifiedsShoppingHomePoliticsCampaign 2012CongressCourts &LawThe Fed PageHealth CarePollingWhite HouseBlogs & ColumnsIssues: EnergyTop Blogs

Election 2012 | Felicia SonmezThe Fix | Chris CillizzaFederal Eye | Ed O’KeefeFact Checker | Glenn KesslerOpinionsAll OpinionsPostPartisanLeft-LeaningRight-LeaningTolesCartoonsTelnaesAnimationsLocalColumnist IndexLocalDC: Politics| NewsMD: Politics| CommunitiesVA: Politics| CommunitiesCrimeEducationOn Faith/LocalObituariesTraffic & CommutingWeatherBlogs & ColumnsThe Root DCTop Blogs

Post NowThe BuzzCapital Weather GangDr. GridlockSportsRedskins/NFLCapitals/NHLWizards/NBANationals/MLBDC United/SoccerCollegesAllMetSportsOther SportsBlogs & ColumnsTop Blogs

The Insider| Mike JonesCapitals Insider| Katie CarreraWizards Insider | Michael LeeNationals Journal| Adam KilgoreNationalCorrectionsEnergy & EnvironmentHealth & ScienceHigher EducationNational SecurityOn FaithOn LeadershipInnovationsOn GivingBlogs & ColumnsTop Blogs

Ideas@InnovationsPost LeadershipUnder GodCheckpoint WashingtonWorldAfricaTheAmericasAsia &PacificEuropeMiddle EastNational SecurityWar ZonesSpecial ReportsCheckpoint WashingtonBusinessEconomyIndustriesLocal BusinessMarketsPolicy&RegulationTechnologyWorldBusinessBlogs & ColumnsInnovationsOn Small BusinessTop Blogs

Wonkblog | Ezra KleinPost Tech | Cecilia KangFaster ForwardWhere We LiveInvestigationsLifestyleAdviceCarolyn HaxFoodHome & GardenStyleTravelWeddingsWellnessMagazineKidsPostTop Blogs

The Style BlogAll We Can EatReliable Source | Roxanne Roberts & Amy ArgetsingerOn Parenting | Janice D’ArcyEntertainmentBooksCelebritiesComicsGoing Out GuideHoroscopesMoviesMuseumsPuzzlesTheater & DanceTVTop Blogs

TV Column | Lisa de MoraesCelebritology | Jen ChaneyComic Riffs | Michael CavnaClassical Beat | Anne MidgetteMultimediaInnovationsPhotosVideosThe Washington PostMake us your start page

PersonalizeThe Washington PostD.C. MarylandVirginiaCrimeEducationOn Faith/LocalObituariesTraffic & CommutingWeatherBlogs & ColumnsThe Root DCIn the NewsFreeze watch Death threat Md. privatization Montgomery transit Milloy apology ???initialComments:true! pubdate:03/24/2012 10:34 EDT! commentPeriod:14! commentEndDate:4/7/12 10:34 EDT! currentDate:3/25/12 8:0 EDT! allowComments:true! displayComments:true!

Behind the scenes at the White House

The art and innovation of the real ‘Mad Men’

Venus and Jupiter, meet the moon

Climbing to the top of the National Cathedral

John Payton, a lawyer who argued bias cases before Supreme Court, dies at 65

Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By T. Rees Shapiro, The Washington Post

John Payton, a lawyer and civil rights advocate who argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court involving discrimination in the workplace and the rights of universities to include race as a factor in admissions, died March 22 at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He was 65.

He had complications from multiple myeloma, said his wife, Gay McDougall, a civil and human rights activist.

Comments

Weigh InCorrections?

Personal Post

(Alex Brandon/ASSOCIATED PRESS) - NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund President and Director-Counsel John Payton died March 22 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He was 65.

At his death, Mr. Payton was president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, a civil rights legal organization.

Mr. Payton’s appointment to the fund in 2008 capped a five-decade career devoted to the protection of minorities. During the early 1990s, he was the District’s corporation counsel, or chief legal officer. The position is now called the D.C. attorney general.

In a statement, President Obama called Mr. Payton “a true champion of equality” who will be remembered for his “courage and fierce opposition to discrimination in all its forms.”

While a student at Pomona College in the 1960s, Mr. Payton helped establish the California school’s first black student association. He also successfully lobbied Pomona’s parent institution, the Claremont Colleges consortium, for the creation of a black studies program.

After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1977, he clerked for a year for Judge Cecil F. Poole of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, before joining the D.C. law firm Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering.

He contributed to the firm’s representation of the NAACP in various legal matters. In a 1982 case before the U.S. Supreme Court, NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., he helped the civil rights organization avoid paying a financial penalty after organizing a 1960s boycott against white merchants in Mississippi.

In 1988, Mr. Payton represented the city of Richmond in a Supreme Court case involving a city program in which 30 percent of municipal construction jobs had to be given to minority-owned businesses. The court ruled that Richmond’s law was unconstitutional because it violated white-owned construction firms’ right to equal protection.

In the late 1990s, Mr. Payton served as the lead counsel for the University of Michigan in two
cases involving its use of race in admissions. One concerned admissions at the undergraduate level and the other at the law school.

The cases were split once they reached the Supreme Court. Mr. Payton led the defense in Gratz v. Bollinger, the 2003 case involving the undergraduate admission policy.

The Supreme Court upheld the law school’s affirmative action process — in which applicants received a more individualized review — and rejected Mr. Payton’s defense of the undergraduate policies, which utilized a point system that was considered unfair by its opponents.

In 2008, Mr. Payton left Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering — now known as WilmerHale — to lead the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Mr. Payton successfully represented a group of black firefighters in a Supreme Court case against the city of Chicago. In that case, the city’s fire department had used test scores for hiring purposes. Because of the way the test was graded, no black applicants had qualified. The court found that the city had discriminated against the black recruits by not using a different system for grading the tests.

Continued12Next PageEmailTumblrRedditStumbleuponDiggDeliciousDiscussion Policy | FAQ | About DiscussionsLoading...

Comments

Add your comment
Read about the changes to comment thread appearance, moderation. ?Read what others are sayingAbout Badges SuperFan Badge

SuperFan badge holders consistently post smart, timely comments about Washington area sports and teams.