[Baltimore Sun] Judge Joyce H. Green, trailblazing attorney and federal judge, dies
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Judge Joyce H. Green, a trailblazing attorney and prominent longtime federal judge, died Oct. 10 from acute myeloid leukemia at Brightview Senior Living in Towson. The former Tuscany-Canterbury resident was 95.
“Joyce had an ideal judicial temperament,” said Judge Royce Lamberth, who succeeded her on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. “She was even-keeled, let the lawyers have their say, never lost control of her court and was at all times very respectful.”
“She was also a trailblazing litigator back at a time when women weren’t considered to be tough enough to be litigators,” he said.
Ruth Joyce Martha Hens was the daughter of Swiss immigrant parents. Her father, Dr. James Hens, was a psychiatrist, and her mother, Hedy Hens, was a homemaker.
She spent her early years in New York before the family moved to Catonsville when her father joined the staff of Spring Grove State Hospital. After graduating from Towson High School at 16, she began her college studies at the University of Maryland, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in 1949 in psychology.
She began her law studies at the University of Maryland School of Law and transferred to George Washington University, where she obtained her law degree in 1951.
“She was one of only six women in her class and passed the bar one day before she officially graduated and began practicing law when she was 22,” said a son, Judge James H. Green, an associate judge for the District Court of Baltimore City.
Judge Joyce Green was the first woman to be appointed to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
She spent 17 years in private practice. After marrying Samuel Green in 1965, the couple established the firm of Green & Green. She stepped away from law to spend time raising her family.When a call came suggesting an appointment to the General Sessions Court, she declined.
In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her to the District of Columbia Superior Court, where she served until being nominated in 1979 to the District Court for the District of Columbia by President Jimmy Carter.
In 1985, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist appointed Judge Green as the first woman to serve on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and she served as presiding judge from 1990 until retiring in 1995. After her husband died in 1983, she was able to care for her family and maintain her career.
“Her family always came first. You’d never know what her day job was, because she was able to maintain this incredible balance,” her son said. “She’d come home … drop her briefcase, put on an apron, and get dinner on the table.”
Among her notable cases was the BCCI bank fraud case,when she ruled the bank engaged in money laundering and ordered $393 million be turned over to victims. Judge Green also played a pivotal role in the Guantanamo Bay detainee case when she ruled that detainees had the “right to habeas corpus and due process to challenge their detention.”.
A longtime fan of what is now the Washington Commanders, in 1993 she won the hearts of fans when she ruled in a “contentious union dispute,” her son wrote, that the “team could field its players for the season finale.”
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Plans for services to be held at Fort Myer Chapel at Arlington National Cemetery, where she’ll be interned next to her husband, are incomplete.
In addition to her son, she is survived by another son, Michael Green, of Winchester, Virginia; a daughter, June Heather Cornett, of Huntingtown, Calvert County; a stepson, Dr. Phillip Green, of Kalamazoo, Michigan; and 13 grandchildren.
Have a news tip? Contact Fred Rasmussen at frasmussen@baltsun.com and 410-332-6536.
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