By:  Danburg                                             H.R. No. 3
       73R986 SDU-D
                                  R E S O L U T I O N
    1-1        WHEREAS, The Texas House of Representatives is proud to honor
    1-2  Judge John V. Singleton, Jr., whose retirement on June 1, 1992,
    1-3  brought to a close a distinguished 26-year career on the bench; and
    1-4        WHEREAS, Appointed in 1966 by President Lyndon Johnson, who
    1-5  advised him, "Never forget the people," Judge Singleton has made
    1-6  his influence felt in federal courthouses throughout the Southern
    1-7  District of Texas, which stretches from Houston to the Rio Grande;
    1-8  and
    1-9        WHEREAS, In 1969, in a ruling against San Jacinto College
   1-10  officials who had expelled a student for growing a beard in
   1-11  violation of school regulations, he held that the officials had
   1-12  failed to prove that any hairstyle "had a reasonable relationship
   1-13  to the health, welfare, morals, and discipline of students"; and
   1-14        WHEREAS, A year later, at the height of the Vietnam War
   1-15  protest movement, Judge Singleton stood firm before political
   1-16  pressure in ruling against the Houston City Council's attempt to
   1-17  prevent the Houston Peace Coalition from parading through downtown;
   1-18  and
   1-19        WHEREAS, In other courageous rulings for the times in which
   1-20  they were made, he held that a man arrested for refusing induction
   1-21  into the U.S. armed forces should have been classified as a
   1-22  conscientious objector because he had declared his moral opposition
   1-23  to the Vietnam War on his draft registration form and that a
   1-24  Houston nightclub could not deny membership to a black woman; and
    2-1        WHEREAS, Such decisions as these laid the foundation for a
    2-2  brilliant and often controversial judicial career that included a
    2-3  decade of service as chief judge for the Southern District of
    2-4  Texas, from 1978 through 1988; and
    2-5        WHEREAS, Among his many accomplishments as chief judge were a
    2-6  restructuring of the court reporter system that had come under
    2-7  attack by the General Accounting Office in 1980 and a ruling in
    2-8  1987 in favor of minority residents of Baytown who had filed a
    2-9  lawsuit claiming that the at-large system of electing municipal
   2-10  officials was a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act and
   2-11  denied them equal participation in the political process; and
   2-12        WHEREAS, The decisions handed down by Judge Singleton during
   2-13  his long and illustrious career have had a tremendous impact on
   2-14  major legal and social issues of the past three decades; in abiding
   2-15  by the advice given him by President Johnson, he has consistently
   2-16  demonstrated his unwavering commitment to the vigorous defense of
   2-17  human rights and personal freedoms; now, therefore, be it
   2-18        RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 73rd Texas
   2-19  Legislature hereby honor Judge John V. Singleton, Jr., in grateful
   2-20  recognition of his exemplary service as a federal district judge
   2-21  and extend to him best wishes for many happy years of retirement;
   2-22  and, be it further
   2-23        RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
   2-24  prepared for Judge Singleton as an expression of high regard by the
   2-25  Texas House of Representatives.