Judge Johnson: She’s Long on Discipline

WASHINGTON —  Chief U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, whose authority over federal grand jury disputes includes the question of White House executive privilege, is known for her austere demeanor, tough courtroom discipline and deliberative manner in deciding cases.

A former teacher in the rough-and-tumble District of Columbia school system, Johnson often takes no more from lawyers than she once did from the junior high school students she taught for four years.

“She’s very evenhanded. She steps on everybody,” said one criminal defense attorney.

Johnson, who is 64, last summer became the first African American woman to head the federal court system in the nation’s capital. A former judge in the District of Columbia Superior Court system, she was appointed to the federal judiciary in 1980 by President Carter.

Known for her slow, deliberative manner in deciding complex legal issues, Johnson insists on clear, concise reasoning from lawyers who appear in her courtroom.

“You have to win her confidence right away with clear, logical arguments, as if you were explaining your case to a layperson,” according to an attorney who successfully represented a corporate client.

Another litigator said that “you have to be very painstaking in explaining things to her” and be ready for many questions.

Johnson’s hearing on arguments from White House lawyers on the issue of executive privilege, as it applies to independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s grand jury investigation of charges involving Monica S. Lewinsky and President Clinton, is taking place behind closed doors. She also is the judge to whom David E. Kendall, Clinton’s Whitewater lawyer, directed his complaint, still under seal, about leaks from Starr’s investigation.

As chief judge, she has wide authority over grand jury practices. The late John J. Sirica held that same post throughout most of the Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration and used his power to goad prosecutors and investigators to thoroughly examine all evidence of wrongdoing.

While critics sometimes complain about Johnson’s frosty, austere attitude in the courtroom, as well as her deliberative pace, no one questions her work ethic. A graduate of the District of Columbia Teachers College, she obtained a law degree from Georgetown University by attending night classes. Years later, Bill Clinton would earn his law degree from the same university.

Wise in the ways of the capital, Johnson worked in the Justice Department’s civil division in the 1960s. Later, as a federal judge, she presided over an early 1990s congressional scandal involving elected representatives who misused the House bank and post office and dipped into official funds for personal use.

She heard the cases of former House Postmaster Robert Rota and ex-post office manager Joanne O’Rourke, both of whom pleaded guilty to embezzlement.

But she was toughest on former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), the longtime chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee who pleaded guilty to corruption charges months after Johnson heard his lawyers argue that criminal charges against him were legally flawed.

She sentenced Rostenkowski to 17 months in federal prison and sternly lectured him for “a reprehensible breach of trust.”