July/August 2004 issue
In Memoriam: Judge Clyde S. Cahill, Jr. of the Eastern District of Missouri
On Wednesday, August 18,
2004, Judge Clyde S. Cahill
passed away at his home in
St. Louis. He was 81 years
old.
Clyde S. Cahill, Jr. was born
and grew up in St. Louis,
Missouri. He attended
Vashon High School and
after graduating served in the
U.S. Air Force from 1942 to
1946. When he returned from the war he
continued his education and received his
bachelor’s degree from St. Louis University in
1949. He received his law degree from St. Louis
University School of Law in 1951.
He began his legal career by establishing a solo
practice. In 1954 he gave up his practice to work
as an assistant circuit attorney for the City of St.
Louis, where he focused on the prosecution of
murder cases. In 1961 he returned to private
practice but continued to work for the city as a
special assistant circuit attorney until 1964.
During this time he also served as chief legal
advisor to the Missouri office of the NAACP and
filed the first lawsuit in Missouri to enforce the
U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v.
Board of Education.
In 1966 he went to work as the regional attorney
for the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity in
Kansas City, Missouri. In 1968 he returned to St.
Louis to serve as the general manager of the
Human Development Corporation, a nonprofit
organization that provides opportunities for
disadvantaged individuals and families. In 1972
he became the executive director and general
counsel for the Legal Aid Society of St. Louis,
where he worked to expand legal aid services
throughout eastern Missouri.
In 1975 he was appointed as a circuit judge for
the 22 Judicial Circuit for the State of Missouri. nd
He was appointed to the U.S. District Court for
the Eastern District of Missouri in 1980. He was
the first African-American federal district judge
to serve in the 8th Circuit.
Judge Cahill had a reputation for being both
courteous and compassionate, but he was also
willing to challenge the flaws he saw in the
system. He was critical of the federal sentencing
guidelines, which he believed were sometimes
inappropriately severe. In 1994 he ruled that the
federal law requiring longer sentences for crack
cocaine crimes as opposed to powder cocaine
crimes was unconstitutional, noting the impact of
the law on black communities. U.S. v. Clary, 846
F. Supp. 768.
Judge Cahill is survived by his wife, Thelma, and
their six children, V. Clyde, Lalinda, Marina,
Randall, Kevin, and Myron.
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