U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of Detroit
Associated Press
DETROIT — Michigan’s first black female federal judge, Anna Diggs Taylor, has died at age 84.
Taylor’s death was announced Monday at the Detroit federal courthouse. She died Saturday at an assisted living center in Grosse Pointe Woods following a brief illness.
Taylor was appointed to the federal bench in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter. She was chief judge in Michigan’s Eastern District in 1997 and 1998. She retired in 2011.
In 2006, Taylor made headlines when she said an eavesdropping program without court oversight by the Bush administration was unconstitutional. An appeals court overturned the decision, saying the American Civil Liberties Union didn’t have standing to sue.
Taylor is survived by her husband, former utility executive S. Martin Taylor. In 2005, Crain’s Detroit Business listed them as a Detroit power couple.
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