Johnson received a recess appointment from President Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 22, 1955, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama vacated by Judge Charles Kennamer. He was nominated to the same position on January 12, 1956. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 31, 1956, and received his commission on February 1, 1956. He served as Chief Judge from 1966 to 1979. His service terminated on July 12, 1979, due to his elevation to the Fifth Circuit.
Notable district court case and incidents
In 1956, Johnson ruled in favor of Rosa Parks, striking down the "blacks in the back of the bus" law of the city of Montgomery Alabama, as unconstitutional. In orders issued in 1961 and 1962, he ordered the desegregation of bus depots and the Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama's Middle judicial district. In 1961 he ordered the Ku Klux Klan and Montgomery police to stop the beating and harassment of Freedom Riders attempting to integrate interstate bus travel. In March 1965, Judge Johnson ruled that activists had the right to undertake the Selma to Montgomery march as a means to petition the government, overturning Governor George Wallace's prohibition of the march as contrary to public safety. Thousands of sympathizers traveled to Selma to join the march, which had 25,000 participants by its last leg into Montgomery on March 25, 1965. It was considered integral to gaining passage by Congress of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Judge Johnson received death threats and ostracism for his role in advancing civil rights, and was protected by federal marshals for nearly two decades. A burning cross was placed on his lawn in 1956 following the Rosa Parks decision, and his mother's house was bombed in 1967, although she was not hurt.
In 1977 President Carter and Attorney General Griffin Bell asked Johnson to become FBI Director when Director Clarence M. Kelley stepped down. But, the day after Carter nominated him, Johnson was found to have an aneurysm, or abnormal swelling, of his abdominal aorta. His nomination had to be withdrawn and William H. Webster was nominated in his place.
Federal appellate judicial service
Johnson was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on April 2, 1979, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, to a new seat established by 92 Stat. 1629. He was confirmed by the Senate on June 19, 1979, and received his commission on June 21, 1979. His service terminated on October 1, 1981, due to reassignment to the Eleventh Circuit. Johnson was reassigned to the newly established United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuitby operation of law on October 1, 1981. He assumed senior status on October 30, 1991. He was succeeded on the bench by Judge Edward Earl Carnes. His service terminated on July 23, 1999, upon his death. Johnson additionally served on the Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals from 1972 to 1982. Johnson served more than 40 years on the federal bench. At the memorial service after his death, he was praised by former United States Senator Howell Heflin, Democrat of Alabama, who said that the judge's "unrelenting devotion to the rule of law" helped him strike down segregation laws.
Death
Johnson died at his home in Montgomery of pneumonia after being briefly hospitalized for a fall at his home the week prior.
Invalidated a plan by the city of Tuskegee, Alabama to dilute potential black voting strength by redrawing city boundaries so as to exclude concentrations of black voters from the city.
United States v. Alabama
Ordered that black persons be registered to vote if their application papers were equal to the performance of the least qualified white applicant accepted on the voting rolls.
Lewis v. Greyhound,
Required desegregation of the bus depots of the city of Montgomery, as these served interstate buses operating under federal law.
United States v. City of Montgomery
Ordered the city of Montgomery to surrender its voting registration records to the US Department of Justice; DOJ was studying why so few African Americans were registered to vote in a state with numerous majority-black counties.
United States v. City of Montgomery, 201 F. Supp. 590 - Dist. Court, MD Alabama 1962
Required desegregation of airport and related facilities at Dannelly Field in the city of Montgomery
Sims v. Frink
Required the state of Alabama to reapportion state legislative districts to adhere to the 'one man, one vote' principle as stipulated in its 1901 constitution. The state districts had not been reapportioned since that date, although such reapportionment was supposed to take place following every decennial census. This had resulted in marked under-representation of urban citizens, as demographic changes had created density of population in urbanized cities and areas
Lee v. Macon County Board of Ed.
Mandated, in Alabama, the first statewide desegregation of public schools.
Ruled that the state of Alabama must permit both male and female Blacks to serve on juries; they were qualified after regaining the ability to register and vote. The case was brought as a class action suit on behalf of black residents on Lowndes County, Alabama; other class members joined so that the decision applied to the state. It was "one of the first civil actions brought to remedy systematic exclusion of Negroes from jury service generally."
Ruled that women had a statutory right to choose, for themselves, whether to work in physically demanding jobs that were historically performed by men.
Ordered the desegregation of the Montgomery chapter of the YMCA.
Wyatt v. Stickney
Established a right to treatment for people with mental illness who have been involuntarily committed.
NAACP v. Dothard
Required the state of Alabama to continue hiring to overcome decades of racial discrimination in the Dept. of Public Safety, wherein the department should hire 50% blacks in state trooper and support positions until racial parity of 25% representation was achieved.
