Longtime SC Judge Hamilton of US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals dies at 86

Fourth U.S. Circuit of Appeals Judge Clyde Hamilton, who as a trial judge years ago sent a former University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach to prison, has died at the age of 86.

The death of Hamilton, who was known as a bright, tough and fair judge, was announced by 4th Circuit Chief Judge Roger Gregory, who notified other circuit judges about the judge’s passing. At the time of his death, Hamilton was a semi-retired judge on the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Whoever coined the phrase ‘straight as an arrow’ must have had Clyde Hamilton in mind. He served the federal judiciary for nearly four decades and was a role model and mentor to me and many others who followed,” said U.S. District Judge Joe Anderson, who like Hamilton is an Edgefield County native. “He will be greatly missed.”

Longtime Columbia lawyer Jack Swerling recalled Thursday that once in the early 1980s, after Swerling had lost a case before Hamilton, the two talked for an hour.

“The jury didn’t come back until 11 at night, and I was walking back to my office, and he stopped his car and said, ‘Come on, get in,’ ” said Swerling, who tried several cases over which Hamilton presided. “It was really a fascinating experience because I didn’t know him very well. He had a lot of integrity, was extremely bright and socially was an extremely nice guy. But he could be tough.”

Hamilton, a native of Edgefield and a 1956 Wofford graduate, was a lawyer in private practice in Edgefield and Spartanburg before being tapped in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan for a trial judge seat on the U.S. District Court of South Carolina, according to a biography of Hamilton published last year by the Wake Forest Law Review. Hamilton graduated from George Washington University Law School.

In 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated Hamilton for a seat on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Senate confirmed him the same year.

As a trial judge on the federal South Carolina bench, Hamilton in 1984 presided over one of South Carolina’s highest profile cases of the 1980s — the libel lawsuit of former USC women’s basketball coach Pam Parsons against Time Inc.

Sports Illustrated, one of the most popular Time Inc. magazines in the country, had written an article depicting Parsons as a lesbian involved in a love affair with one of her players, according to multiple news reports. Parsons denied the allegation and sued. But during a 1984 trial at which Hamilton presided, evidence surfaced that allegations in the article were true. Parsons lost the lawsuit.

After the trial, Hamilton ordered a federal perjury investigation into whether Parsons lied during the trial. Parsons eventually pled guilty and Hamilton sentenced her to three years in prison but suspended the time to be served to four months. “Parsons jailed for perjury,” read a February 1985 headline in the New York Times about Hamilton’s sentence.

One of the highest-profile cases that Hamilton wrote while an Appeals court judge involved a Virginia middle-school student, Alan Newsom. Newsom sued his school district after being told that he could not wear a National Rifle Association T-shirt “depicting images of three people with guns and the words ‘Sports Shooting Camp,’ ” according to the Wake Forest Law Review.

Hamilton wrote the majority 4th Circuit decision, finding that the school’s ban on clothing depicting weapons was unconstitutionally vague, the Wake Forest article said. Hamilton found the school’s ban excluded “a broad range and scope of symbols, images, and political messages that are entirely legitimate and even laudatory,” according to the article.

“Judge Hamilton was known among his colleagues as somebody who was very well versed in the law. He was always very well prepared for oral argument and for discussion of the merits of any case he was involved in,” said 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Dennis Shedd, now semi-retired and who replaced Hamilton when he went on semi-retired status in 1999.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals is one of 13 federal appeals courts around the nation. Based in Richmond, Virginia, the 4th Circuit hears appeals from federal trial courts in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. Appeals from the 4th Circuit are to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A small private graveside service is planned for Hamilton. At a later date, 4th Circuit judges plan to meet with family at the formal unveiling of the judge’s portrait in Richmond.