Friends celebrate Todd as courthouse named for him
The federal courthouse on the court square in Downtown Jackson is now officially known as the James D. Todd Federal Courthouse.
The legislation passed in 2023 to name the building after the judge who presided over cases in the building for the first couple decades of its existence, but the ceremony that resulted in the official naming of the facility happened on Friday, June 7.
U.S. Representative David Kustoff, who was the one most responsible in the federal government for the naming, wasn’t able to be present for the ceremony because he’d been asked to represent the United States in France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day commemoration the day before. But he sent a video with his regards and a few stories, mainly from when Todd was first confirmed to move from state circuit court to federal court in 1985 by President Ronald Regan and was questioned about it by longtime South Carolina representative Strom Thurmond.
Retired and serving judges from the Western District of Tennessee spoke on Todd’s behalf on Friday, including Judge S. Thomas Anderson.
“This started three-and-a-half years ago when our friend and mentor had announced he’d no longer be an active judge,” Anderson said. “I’ve known Judge Todd for more than 60 years and his family, and he’s earned this honor with his years of service to this district and this country.”
U.S. Marshal Tyreece Miller spoke on Todd’s behalf and one story he told that’s meaningful to him happened in January of 1988 and may be the most impactful decision Todd made in his career. It happened when he heard a case from a Black businessman from Jackson who said the voting system in Jackson with the three-commissioner form of government the City had at the time was making it difficult Black candidates from being able to win when running for office at that time and representing that community of Jackson.
It was after Todd’s decision in favor of the plaintiff in the case that Jackson changed to the current form of government with a Mayor and a nine-member City Council ensuring equal representation for nine geographic districts.
“Although I was 14 years old at the time and unaware of this decision, I’m now aware of its impact on my life growing up in Jackson and its significance on my parents, grandparents and future generations,” Miller said. “When I report for duty at work in the James D. Todd Courthouse, it will be even more meaningful to me because it bears the name of a man who’s been more than a friend to me. A person who stands for justice for all.”
Magistrate Judge Jon York introduced Todd before he spoke, and he told a story of when Todd was sentencing a man who was accused and convicted of conspiring to blow up the building that would later bear Todd’s name. He told the defendant that he couldn’t understand wanting to kill the U.S. government that had educated and nurtured him and cared about him enough to give him a decent lawyer who happened to be a soldier who’d just returned from a tour in Iraq, fighting terrorism, to come home and defend a homegrown terrorist.
Fortunately, the man had been stopped before doing any damage, but even if he hadn’t and he’d succeeded in blowing up every building and killing every American citizen except one, “I’d bet on him instead of you” because Todd was that confident in the American spirit.
That person is still in prison 20 years later, and the building has stood long enough to receive its naming.
Todd was given the microphone to speak standing at his seat in the jury box, surrounded by his family. He started telling a few jokes and giving a brief history of federal courts in Tennessee.
“There have been a total of 26 judges who’ve presided over [the Western District of Tennessee], and I personally have known 18 of them,” Todd said. “That should show you how old I am.”
Todd added that he was proud of the fact that more than a third of those judges – nine to be exact – were in the room during that ceremony.
“The judges that I worked with were honest, hard-working people that stood out to represent what a judge should be,” Todd said.
After the ceremony, the sign in front of the building on Highland Avenue was unveiled, and Todd gave his immediate approval along with his wife Jeanie.
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
