Obituary | Judge made key civil-rights rulings

U.S. District Judge Jack E. Tanner had a "laugh the size of Mount Rainier," one federal public defender recalled. But defendants who had the temerity of annoying "Maximum Jack" ran the risk of adding years to their sentence.

Known for many landmark decisions, Judge Tanner may have made his greatest contribution in the cause for civil rights in rulings that ended the state's pay disparity between men and women and protected the rights of prison inmates.

"He truly was a giant in the civil-rights movement," said U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, who knew Judge Tanner for more than 50 years.

Judge Tanner, 86, died Tuesday night of pancreatic cancer. He met with President Kennedy at the White House in 1963 to discuss civil rights, and he spent years actively involved in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), serving as a national delegate and president of the chapter in his native Tacoma.

He also supported Democratic political candidates, including the late U.S. Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson's 1972 campaign for president. In 1968, he ran for governor as a Democrat, losing in the primary.

His years as a federal judge were not without controversy. Criticized for unpopular decisions, a legal magazine once took him to task for the number of his rulings that were reversed on appeal.

While attending school at the College of Puget Sound (now the University of Puget Sound) and then the University of Washington Law School, Judge Tanner worked on the Tacoma waterfront as a longshoreman. In 1955 he passed the state bar exam on his first try.

In the mid-1960s he worked for Native American fishing rights by defending those involved in the first of many fishing controversies at Frank's Landing on the Nisqually River.

After working as a criminal-defense attorney for 20 years, defending Puyallup Tribe Chief Bob Satiacum on racketeering and other charges, he was nominated to the U.S. District Court by President Carter.

Before he took his oath of office in 1978, Judge Tanner endured a Washington State Bar investigation after another attorney alleged he had improper financial dealings with a Native American smoke-shop owner. Judge Tanner was cleared.

"One of the things that was outstanding about Jack is that he had a real sense of what it was like to be the little guy," Coughenour said. "He was always careful to make certain his powerful position didn't cause him to lose sight of that. They always got a fair shake in his courtroom."

Yet, Judge Tanner was often criticized. In 1983, American Lawyer magazine called him one of the country's worst federal judges because many of his decisions were overturned at the appellate level.

Among Judge Tanner's most notable decisions:

• In 1980, he ruled that conditions at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla constituted "cruel and unusual punishment." An appeals court upheld the decision, but said Judge Tanner went too far in ordering remedies.

• In 1981, he enraged fishermen when he sentenced a Port Townsend commercial fisherman to six months' imprisonment for illegally catching two salmon out of season while netting dogfish.

• In 1983, he awarded a Tacoma couple and their 3-year-old child $11.7 million for injuries suffered during the child's birth at Madigan Army Medical Center — then believed to be the largest personal-injury award in state history. A circuit court later reduced the award by $6 million.

• Also in 1983, he issued the landmark "comparable worth" decision, in which he chastised the state of Washington for underpaying women employees. A circuit court found procedural errors by Judge Tanner, but the ruling eventually brought a $482 million settlement between the state and its largest labor union.

As the first African-American federal judge in the Northwest, Judge Tanner was living under a microscope, federal public defender Thomas Hillier says, and that contributed to some of the criticism.

"That was unquestionably the case. There are scores of white judges who have behaved in ways that ought to cause some raised eyebrows, but it doesn't," Hillier said.

Judge Tanner, say his friends, had strong opinions and acted on them and "Maximum Jack" — as he was known to some — often had little patience with criminals, even sentencing some more harshly than the prosecutor recommended.

Gov. Christine Gregoire was the plaintiff's attorney in the 1983 "comparable worth" case, and she subsequently argued the decision before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"For my generation, Jack Tanner's brave decision on comparable worth was a landmark," Gregoire said in a statement issued Wednesday by her office. "He was the consummate public servant who lived his beliefs."

A lifelong Tacoma resident, Judge Tanner had a long friendship with his clerk of 45 years, Bernadine Wartenbe, with whom he lived.

"He lived his life exactly the way he wanted to," she said Wednesday. "He was extremely judicious. He was fair, and he was a grand man. He gave a lot to the community that people will never know about. He will be missed."

He is survived by two daughters, Maryetta Greaves and Donnetta Gillum, both of Seattle; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Services are pending.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com