MILLENNIUM MOMENT

Corona del Mar resident Thurmond Clarke, the cousin of Sen. Strom

Thurmond, served as a U.S. District Court judge for 38 years after being

appointed by President Eisenhower in 1955.

Before his appointment to the district court, Clarke’s most memorable

ruling was a 1953 decision overturning a California law prohibiting

immigrants from owning land. He ruled the law violated the equal

protection clause of the 14th Amendment, a decision that was upheld by

the state Supreme Court.

Clarke said a visit to San Quentin’s death row had caused him to make an

effort “to temper justice with mercy.”

Clarke also was a president of the Stanford Club of Los Angeles and a

member of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club.

* MILLENNIUM MOMENT celebrates the people who have made a major

contribution to the Newport-Mesa community during this century.