Edith Brown Clement Biography

Edith “Joy” Brown Clement is a judge on the United State Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, Louisiana. In July of 2005 Clement was reported to be on the short list of potential nominees to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court of the United States. (Eventually, President George W. Bush nominated John Roberts, Jr., a judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals.) Clement grew up in Alabama and is a graduate of the University of Alabama (1969) and Tulane University Law School (1972). She spent most of her legal career in private practice as a specialist in maritime law (1975-91). President George H.W. Bush nominated Clement to the federal bench, and in 1991 she was sworn in as a judge for the District Court of the Eastern District of Louisiana, where she served until Bush the younger nominated her for the Fifth Circuit in 2001.