William Clark (judge)

William Clark (February 1, 1891 – October 10, 1957) was a United States federal judge.

Early life
Clark was born on February 1, 1891 in Newark, New Jersey. His parents were John William Clark (1867-1928), president of the Clark Thread Company of Newark, (Clark Thread Co. later merged with J. & P. Coats to become Coats & Clark Inc.) and Margaretta Cameron Clark (1869–1941). He had two brothers, John Balfour Clark (1898-1982), who became president of the Clark Thread Company, and James Cameron Clark (1892-1976).

His maternal grandfather was United States Senator and Secretary of War during the Grant administration, J. Donald Cameron (1833–1918), who himself was the son of Simon Cameron (1799–1889), also a U.S. Senator and the Secretary of War during the Lincoln administration. His paternal grandfather was William Clark (1841–1902), the founder of the Clark Thread Company in the United States.

He studied at the Newark Academy and St. Mark's School and earned successive degrees at Harvard University, starting with a B.A. at the age of 20 in 1911, followed by an M.A. a year later, and finally an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1915.

Career
Two years after graduating from Harvard Law, when the United States entered World War I, he joined the U.S. Army going to France. He stayed with the Army until 1918, rising to the rank of Captain and receiving a Silver Star for gallantry in action.

In 1920, Clark started out the practice of law in Newark, which lasted a bare four years before he became a judge of the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals in 1923. He was only a state judge for one year.

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
On May 21, 1925, Clark, a Republican, received a recess appointment from President Calvin Coolidge to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, to vacated by Charles F. Lynch. Formally nominated on December 8, 1925, Clark's appointment was confirmed by the Senate on December 17, 1925, and he received commission the same day.

Judge Clark presided over many patent cases, only three of which were overturned by 1930.

In 1930, in the case of United States v. Sprague, Judge Clark ruled that the Eighteenth Amendment was invalid on the grounds that its ratification by State Legislatures was not the method prescribed by the Constitution for amendments effecting a transfer of power from the individual states to the United States.

United States Court of Appeals
On June 10, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Clark for elevation to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated by Joseph Whitaker Thompson. Clark was confirmed on June 16 and joined the court on June 25.

Clark resigned from the bench on March 24, 1942 in order to again serve in the U.S. Army during World War II.

World War II
On March 24, 1943, Clark resigned his judgeship and became a full-time member of the United States Army, this time as part of World War II. He was originally commissioned a Lieutenant colonel. His service lasted until the war's conclusion in 1945, rising to the rank of Colonel after 32 months spent overseas. Upon his return to the United States, Clark sued the government under the G.I. Bill for his seat on the bench back. A unanimous decision by the United States Court of Claims held that he was not entitled to resume his post he left to re-join to Army.

In January 1948, he was appointed a civilian member of the legal staff of Gen. Lucius D. Clay, who was commanding the occupation forces in Germany. In 1949, Clark became the chief justice of the Allied High Commission Court of Appeals in Nuremberg, Germany. He stayed in this position until 1954, after being informed in 1953 that he was not going to be reappointed chief justice due to the diminishing amount of work for the court to preside over.

Personal life
On September 20, 1913, Clark married Marjory Bruce Blair (1893–1975), daughter of investment banker C. Ledyard Blair. Eight hundred guests were invited to the celebration at the Blairsden Mansion in Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey, not far from the Clark family's own estate, Peachcroft. Before their divorce in 1947, they had three children, a daughter and two sons:


 * Anne Clark (1914–2008), who served in the New Jersey Senate and as United States Ambassador to New Zealand.
 * Ledyard Blair Clark (1917–2000), who was a prominent journalist and Democratic Party activist.
 * J. William Clark

On October 4, 1947, Clark married for the second time to Sonia Tomara (1897–1982), a foreign correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, in Paris.

Clark died of a heart attack on October 10, 1957 while on vacation in Colombo, Ceylon Sri Lanka.