Michigan’s
first
black
female
federal
judge
dies at
age 84
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.