TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Former U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Gilbert Merritt Dies at 86

Posted by: Kate Prince on Jan 18, 2022
News Type: Passages

Gilbert Stroud Merritt Jr., the longest-serving member of the current 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, died on Monday after a battle with metastatic prostate cancer, the Tennessean reports. He was 86. A fixture in the judiciary and in state politics, Merritt sat on the bench for 44 years. He attended law school at Vanderbilt University and earned a master of law from Harvard Law School in 1962. His career included a stint as the U.S. Attorney for Middle Tennessee from 1966-1969 under President Lyndon B. Johnson, before  he was appointed to the appellate court in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. Merritt was considered for a nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton, who ultimately selected Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Merritt was one of several American jurists to travel to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein to help rebuild the country's shattered judicial system. The Tennessee Bar Journal covered his trip in an October 2003 article. Former Vice President Al Gore described Merritt as "A deeply intelligent and deliberative legal thinker, he was an ardent defender of the liberties that form the foundations of our Constitution…” Funeral services will be held for Merritt at the Christ Episcopal Cathedral in Nashville on Jan. 22 at 11:30 a.m. CST, followed by a visitation and reception at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

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