William H. Timbers

William Homer Timbers (September 5, 1915 – November 26, 1994) was an American lawyer and longtime federal judge. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, Timbers practiced law in New York before being appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Timbers served on that court from 1964 to 1971, and was chief judge from 1964 to 1971. President Richard M. Nixon then elevated Timbers to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where he served from 1971 until his death in 1994. Timbers participated in several notable decisions on both courts.
In addition to his legal and judicial career, Timbers was known as dog enthusiast who served a term as chairman of the board of the American Kennel Club.

Timbers was born on September 5, 1915, in Yonkers, New York. He grew up in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

Timbers received his A.B. from Dartmouth College magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1937. He was selected as a Rhodes Scholar. Timbers received his LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1940.

Timbers was in private practice in New York City from 1940 to 1948 at the law firm of Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Sutherland & Kiendl. Timbers then practiced in Stamford, Connecticut from 1948 to 1953 as a partner of Cummings & Lockwood. From 1953 to 1956, Timbers served as general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 1956, Timbers returned to New York City and became a partner at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate & Timbers (now Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom). Timbers remained there until joining the federal bench in 1960.

Timbers served as chairman of the Republican Town Committee in Darien, Connecticut, and was a delegate at the 1956 Republican National Convention in San Francisco. Timbers also served as a member of the Darien Board of Finance.

Timbers was nominated to United States District Court for the District of Connecticut on August 27, 1959, but received no vote in the Senate.

On January 11, 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower again nominated Timbers to the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, to the seat vacated by J. Joseph Smith. Timbers was confirmed by the Senate on September 1, 1960, and received commission the following day.

Timbers served on that court for eleven years and was its chief judge from 1964 to 1971. In 1967, as a district judge, Timbers struck down the Lindbergh kidnapping law as an unconstitutional infringement of the right to trial by jury because under the statute a defendant was more likely to be sentenced to death sentence if he opted for a jury trial (rather than a bench trial or a guilty plea). On May 13, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon nominated Timbers for elevation to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, to the seat vacated by Robert Palmer Anderson. Timbers was confirmed by the Senate on July 29, 1971, and received his commission the same day.

Timbers, along with Senator Lowell Weicker, supported the nomination of Connecticut governor Thomas J. Meskill to the Second Circuit despite opposition from the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. Timbers wrote a letter in support of Meskill to President Gerald Ford.

Timbers assumed senior status on the court on July 10, 1981, at the age of 65. He continued to hear cases until summer 1993.

Notable cases

In 1990, Timbers joined in a majority opinion (written by Judge Frank X. Altimari, with Judge Thomas J. Meskill concurring in part and dissenting in part) holding that the New York City subway system could bar panhandlers. The court found that begging was not expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.

In 1992, Timbers wrote a majority opinion that upheld, by a 2-1 vote, a district court ruling that blocked the extradition of former Irish Republican Army (IRA) member Peter McMullen to Britain, on the ground that the 1986 Supplementary Extradition Treaty between the United States and Britain unlawfully singled out McMullen and two other men for punishment.

In 1986, Timbers dissented from the court's 2-1 decision (the majority being written by Judge Jon O. Newman) striking down the Bail Reform Act of 1984, which allowed preventive pretrial detention, on Fifth Amendment and Eighth Amendment grounds. Timbers wrote that Congress had approved pretrial detention in cases where it provided "needed protection" against "those defendants found to constitute a danger to the community."

Timbers bred, raised, and exhibited Norwegian elkhounds. He was an enthusiast of the breed from 1958 onward. He served as president of the Ox Ridge Club and the Norwegian Elkhound Association of America. Timbers was also active in the American Kennel Club; he served as chairman of the AKC New York Trial Board (1965–68) and was for fourteen years as a director of the AKC before becoming chairman of the AKC board in 1982.

Timbers was an elder and trustee of the Noroton Presbyterian Church in Darien.

Timbers lived in Darien, Connecticut.

He died on November 26, 1994, in Suffield, Connecticut, at the age of 79, from kidney failure. He was survived by his wife Charlotte MacLachlan Timbers, three sons, one daughter, a brother, and ten grandchildren.