After 5-Month Delay, Loretta Lynch Becomes 1st Black Female Attorney General

Loretta Lynch at the ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House Nov. 8, 2014, in Washington, D.C., after President Barack Obama introduced her as his nominee to replace Eric Holder as attorney general

WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES

Updated Thursday, April 23, 3:45 p.m. EDT: Shortly after Loretta Lynch’s confirmation for the position of attorney general was announced, President Barack Obama released a statement declaring that America “will be better off” for the decision:

Loretta has spent her life fighting for the fair and equal justice that is the foundation of our democracy. As head of the Justice Department, she will oversee a vast portfolio of cases, including counterterrorism and voting rights; public corruption and white-collar crime; judicial recommendations and policy reviews—all of which matter to the lives of every American, and shape the story of our country. Loretta’s confirmation ensures that we are better positioned to keep our communities safe, keep our nation secure, and ensure that every American experiences justice under the law.

Earlier:

Loretta Lynch was finally confirmed as attorney general by the Senate Thursday after five months of being at the center of a partisan battle over a provision in a human trafficking bill, the Washington Post reports. The vote was slightly less narrow than expected because 10 Republicans ended up voting for Lynch’s confirmation—five more than expected.

According to NPR, the 56-43 vote ensures that Lynch will be Eric Holder’s successor to head the Justice Department and become the first black woman to hold the position.  

Lynch’s confirmation had been tied to a partisan battle over an anti-trafficking bill that included an abortion provision that Democrats believed further restricted the procedure. Earlier this week, the Senate struck a deal to end the impasse, clearing the way for the confirmation vote.  

“I guess I was naive in thinking my Republican colleagues would treat Loretta Lynch with the dignity that she and her office deserve,” Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday morning, according to the Post. “Perhaps my mistake was forgetting that for Republicans, this isn’t about Loretta Lynch. It’s about President Obama.”

As the Post notes, Lynch also came under fire from Republicans when, during questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee, she said she thought that President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration were legal and constitutional.

“Ms. Lynch has said flat out that she supports those policies and is committed to defending them in court,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) countered on Thursday. “So I think Congress has a real role here. We do not have to confirm someone to the highest law-enforcement position in America if that someone is publicly committed to denigrating Congress.”

The Senate Republicans who voted for Lynch are Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Thad Cochran (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Rob Portman (Ohio). 

Loretta Young, 87, the elegant beauty whose acting career...

Loretta Young, 87, the elegant beauty whose acting career extended from silent movies to television and included an Academy Award for best actress in "The Farmer's Daughter"; both on and off the screen, she presented the image of serene uprightness; appeared in 88 movies from 1927 to 1953 and on television in more than 300 episodes of "The Loretta Young Show"; she was nominated seven times for Emmys as best starring actress and won three times; retired at the end of "The New Loretta Young Show" in 1963, devoting her time to charities and a line of beauty products bearing her name; returned to acting in 1986, appearing in a television movie, "Christmas Eve"; Aug. 12 in Los Angeles, of ovarian cancer.

Eliahu Ben-Elisar, 68, a veteran right-wing politician who helped negotiate Israel's peace treaty with Egypt; he later served as ambassador to Egypt, the United States and France; as a major figure in the office of then-Prime Minister Menahem Begin, he was closely involved in the negotiations with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the first Arab leader to make peace with Israel, in 1979; Aug. 12 in Paris.

Michael S. Reynolds, 63, author of a five-volume biography of Ernest Hemingway; he was noted for his meticulous scholarship and for his efforts to sort the autobiographical fact from the fiction in Hemingway's work; at times, he seemed to enter Hemingway's mind and to know his most intimate thoughts; Aug. 12 in Santa Fe.

Marshall Wolke, 80, the grandfatherly former head of Conservative Judaism's million lay members in America during the 1970s; he helped found a worldwide organization of Conservative congregations, and earlier took part in the Jewish Agency, the quasi-government that existed prior to the official establishment of Israel in 1948; Aug. 15, on a trip to Israel.

Mary G. Sethness, 87, who made her Gold Coast apartment a venue for Chicago's elite businesspeople, philanthropists and entertainers to come together; she served on the national governing board of the USO, was appointed as Illinois' civilian aide to the secretary of the Army, and was the honorary consul general of Nepal; a longtime friend of many politicians and entertainers, Bob Hope once called her "The lady with clout"; Aug. 12, in Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

Judge William J. Obermiller, 77, known nationwide as the "Spanking Judge" for having a teen defendant spanked in his courtroom in 1962; his family values-oriented pronouncements from the bench included haircuts for long-haired defendants and garbage collection for litterers as terms of their probation; his first spanking order came after a teen called his mother "an idiot" in court; Aug. 14, in Hammond, Ind.

Marvin Lee Manheim, 63, an early researcher in information technology who pioneered analysis of transportation systems and roadways; he published a textbook on transportation system analysis and founded worldwide forums on the topic; he has been a consultant to governments and companies around the world, including the United States, Japan and Mexico; Aug. 10, in his Lakeview home.

Lee Edgar Townsend, 83, former director of the Illinois office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; he specialized in pollution surveillance, playing a key role in the prosecution of U.S. Steel's Gary plant in 1972; Aug. 14, in Westmont Convalescent Center.

William McBride, 87, a pack rat who was instrumental in documenting African-American social and political life in Depression-era Chicago; a former Works Progress Administration mural artist, he collected everything from playbills to African art; the collection was donated to the Chicago Public Library's Vivian G. Harsh Collection of Afro-American History and Literature in 1995; Aug. 11, in Alden Princeton Rehabilitation and Health Care Center.

Frieda Mae Hardin, 103, who joined the Navy during World War I when women were still denied the right to vote, and 79 years later came to represent the achievements of all the women in the armed forces; she was among almost 12,000 women who served in the Navy during World War I as clerks, draftsmen, translators, camouflage designers and recruiters; Aug. 9 in Livermore, Calif.

Val Dufour, 73, who won an Emmy Award as outstanding actor in a daytime drama series in the 1976-77 season for playing John Wyatt on "Search for Tomorrow"; in New York, he studied with Uta Hagen and at the Actors Studio; he was in several Broadway shows, television shows and movies; July 27 in New York.

Virginia Admiral, 85, an American painter and writer who studied with Hans Hofmann; her work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice; in New York, she wrote for True Crimes magazine; at the Hofmann School in New York, she met the artist Robert De Niro, who was working as a class monitor; they married in 1942 and their son, the actor Robert De Niro, was born in 1943; July 27 in New York.

Richmond: U.S. Attorney General Lynch meets with police, youth

The United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch, center, shares a laugh with Richmond Mayor Tom butt, right and Acting U.S. Attorney Brian Stetch, left, prior to holding a town-hall-style meeting in Richmond on Sept. 25, 2015. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

RICHMOND -- U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch met with Contra Costa officials, law enforcement and teens during a stop Friday in Richmond, part of a national tour aimed at improving relations between police and residents and highlighting effective community-policing strategies.

"No issue is more important than the issue of police-community relations in this day and age," Lynch said, mentioning last year's violence in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting death of a young man stopped for allegedly stealing a pack of cigarillos.

"Those incidents reflect years and generations of negative interactions and mistrust that come together in flash-point situations and turn into conflagrations."

Julie Perez, of Pinole, protests outside Richmond City Hall during a visit by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Sept. 25, 2015. Perez is seeking justice in the shooting death of her son, Richard "Pedie" Perez, by a Richmond police officer last September. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

During her visit, Lynch, who was sworn in this April and is the first African-American woman to hold the post, met with Richmond youths and spoke with officers from the Richmond Police Department, both of which meetings she described as candid discussions. She also met with female law enforcement chiefs to discuss women in leadership and held a round-table talk with representatives from community organizations and schools. All meetings were closed to the news media.

Richmond is one of six cities Lynch is visiting on her national tour aimed at highlighting positive police practices and restoring trust; the others are Cincinnati; Birmingham, Alabama; Seattle; Pittsburgh; and East Haven, Connecticut,

During her public comments, Lynch highlighted the Richmond Police Department's early adoption of body cameras, which went into effect this winter; training on implicit bias; and programs such as Operation Ceasefire, which addresses gun violence by pulling in police, probation officers and community groups.

"It's clear to me that Richmond is working toward a holistic and comprehensive approach to criminal justice that is more than just an arrest but is trying to identify many of the causes that lead people to connect with the criminal justice system in the first place," Lynch said.

During a stop at the RYSE Youth Center, which offers mentoring, counseling, classes and peer groups, Lynch met with 12 young people to hear about what they wanted to see from law enforcement. There, she was told that while Richmond police have made many improvements in their interactions with residents, officers still needed more training, especially in their interactions with young people, said Kimberly Aceves, executive director of RYSE.

Another concern was school resource officers and the so-called "schools-to-prison pipeline" that critics say makes students of color more likely to get suspended and expelled than their white peers.

"Many young people feel that the boundaries between police and education get blurred and there needs to be another way to ensure a safe environment," Acevedo said about the SROs.

Outside City Hall, Lynch was greeted by a group of residents protesting last year's shooting death of Richard "Pedie" Perez, a 24-year-old unarmed man who was killed after an altercation with a police officer. The Perez family and their supporters want an independent inquiry into the death. They have also filed a federal lawsuit and say they aren't willing to settle.

"We want U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to know that all is not well in paradise," said Gerald Smith, a member of the Oscar Grant Committee, which advocates against police brutality.

Since being sworn in, Lynch has pushed improving community relations. She launched a review of the Baltimore Police Department after the death of a black man who was in police custody and met with civil rights leaders and law enforcement in Baltimore and Cincinnati in an attempt to regain trust between police and the black community.

Judy Lewis Dies, Psychotherapist And Child Of Loretta Young And Clark Gable

Judy Lewis, therapist for troubled teenagers, actress and screen writer, has died in Pennsylvania at the age of 76. The cause was cancer, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

As a young actress, Lewis worked in TV dramas and soap operas such as General Hospital. For several years she played a recurring character on the serial, The Secret Storm. She produced and wrote scripts, and once appeared on Broadway, according to BroadwayWorld.

 

Judy Lewis in 1959.

Anonymous/ASSOCIATED PRESS 

 

However, she radically changed careers in the 1980s. She returned to college, earning an advanced degree in clinical psychology and starting work with children in the California foster care system. In the 1990s, she obtained additional certifications and opened her own psychotherapy practice in Los Angeles.

Lewis could connect very well with children who'd been abandoned. Her own childhood history is complicated. She was brought up by the Oscar-winning actress Loretta Young, who adopted her as a toddler. But in reality, Lewis was her mother's biological daughter. Years earlier while working on a film, Loretta Young had had a very short affair with leading man Clark Gable, who was older and married. As the Los Angeles Times notes,

"The rest of their story unfolds like a B movie: The unmarried, devout Catholic known for playing wholesome roles discovers she is pregnant as she is set to star in legendary director Cecil B. DeMille's religious-themed film "The Crusades," goes abroad to avoid gossip, and returns to Los Angeles to give birth in secrecy. Then she turns the infant over to a home run by nuns, retrieves her daughter before she turns 2, fakes the adoption and raises the child under a cloud of lies."

The baby was Judy.

Lewis says in her memoir, Uncommon Knowledge, she didn't learn who her father was until she was 23, when her prospective husband broke the news. Although her parentage was known by others, to Judy Lewis it had been a surprise. She wasn't able to confront her mother for years. When Lewis published her book, Loretta Young did not speak to her daughter for several years, says the L.A. Times.

Although Young admitted the truth to her daughter, she would not do so publically. She finally allowed her biographer to reveal the matter, but wouldn't allow the book to be published during her lifetime, according to the New York Times (paywall). Loretta Young died in 2000. Clark Gable died in 1960.

Lewis is survived by a daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.

The death of Hollywood's most famous love child: Clark Gable and Loretta Young's secret daughter passes away aged 76

It was one of Hollywood’s best-kept secrets for decades until the truth came out after 60 years.

Now Judy Lewis - the secret love child of film stars Clark Gable and Loretta Young, who conceived her on the set of The Call of the Wild in the 1930s - has died of cancer aged 76.

Lewis sensationally revealed in her 1994 memoir Uncommon Knowledge that she was conceived in 1935 when Young, 22, and the married Gable, 34, were shooting the classic movie.

Young, a single Catholic woman, concealed her pregnancy and placed her daughter in an orphanage at eight months. She brought her into public view at 19 months, saying she was her adopted child.

Terrified her secret would come out, Young did all she could to cover up clues about her daughter's origins. There are no photographs of Lewis up to two. Up to seven they show her wearing a bonnet.

Lewis recalled: 'My ears stuck out, just like my father's did. So I had plastic surgery when I was seven. My surgeon had told my mother that an operation of this nature was extremely painful. 

‘He suggested it should wait until I was older. But she insisted.' Lewis saw her father, who died in 1960, only once, when she was 15.

She said of the encounter: 'As he left, he gave me a kiss on my forehead, but I didn't know he was my father. I cry when I watch his films. Why didn't he ride up on a white horse and rescue me?'

Scroll down for video

Old Hollywood: Lewis sensationally revealed in her 1994 memoir that she was conceived in 1935 when Loretta Young, 22, and the married Clark Gable, 34, were shooting The Call of the Wild

Secret: Loretta Young is pictured with Judy Lewis in 1944, who did not know for years who her father was

There is a Gone With The Wind scene where Gable plays affectionately with his fictional daughter. 'I like to imagine that he was thinking of me when he was playing those scenes,’ Lewis said.

She added that perhaps the famous 'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn' was a truer reflection of his feelings towards her.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

‘At the time, what Loretta Young did was completely successful,’ said Leonard Maltin, a film critic and Hollywood historian. 

‘The general public never had any inkling that she had done this. It protected her stardom and her image as a wholesome young woman.’

In 1940, Young married Thomas Lewis, and Judy Lewis took his surname - but she was never formally adopted by her stepfather.

Mother and child: Loretta Young is pictured centre with Judy Lewis, left, and a grand-daughter, in 1982

Disguised: There are no photographs of Judy Lewis up to two. Up to seven they show her wearing a bonnet

Mummy: Her parenthood was an open secret in Hollywood but Lewis's friends were told not to tell her

'It was very difficult for me as a little girl not to be accepted ... by my mother, who to this day will not publicly acknowledge that I am her biological child,' Lewis said in 1994.

'As he left, he gave me a kiss on my forehead, but I didn't know he was my father. I cry when I watch his films. Why didn't he ride up on a white horse and rescue me?'

Judy Lewis

Her parenthood was an open secret in Hollywood but Lewis's friends had been instructed not to tell her.

It wasn't until Judy's wedding that her groom Joseph Tinney finally told her that Gable was her father. She was 23.

She explained: 'I grew up surrounded by rumours that Clark Gable was my father. Everyone knew who my parents were, even my closest friends, but no one dared tell me.

'It wasn't until the night before I was to get married that my future husband told me who my father was. I had told him my suspicions about my mother being my real mother and that I didn't know who my father was. 

One meeting: Judy Lewis saw her father Clark Gable, who died in 1960, only once, when she was 15

No father: Terrified her secret would come out, Young tried to cover up clues about her daughter's origins

‘He then said: “I know everything. It's common knowledge, Judy. Your father is Clark Gable”.’

'Twenty-three years of my life had passed and everyone in the world knew about me - but me. I cried then. And I have been crying for most of my life,' said Judy, who had years of therapy. 

'Twenty-three years of my life had passed and everyone in the world knew about me - but me. I cried then. And I have been crying for most of my life'

Judy Lewis

She was born in Venice, California, and went on to perform on Broadway and TV in her own career. 

Lewis also produced the soap opera ‘Texas,’ a spinoff of ‘Another World.’ In the 1980s, she earned psychology degrees, advocating for children's rights and counselling teenagers. 

She later became a psychotherapist in Los Angeles, something she pursued until her illness. In 1994, she wrote ‘Uncommon Knowledge,’ acknowledging her parentage publicly for the first time.

‘The situation in which they found themselves in 1935 would not have posed such a problem in the Hollywood of today,’ Lewis wrote in the book.

Showbiz life: In this May 1961 photo, actress Loretta Young, right, and her daughter Judy Lewis, left, attend a party following the Emmy awards in Hollywood, California

Party time: Loretta Young is pictured centre with her daughter Judy Lewis, right, in an undated photo

Before her memoir was published, the identity of her parents had long been rumoured. 

However Mr Maltin said the truth was never truly public until the memoir, in which Lewis describes her mother telling her the truth in 1966.

'Well, he was your father. He was darling. Sweet and very gentle. He was married, so when I discovered I was pregnant with you, I was frantic and terrified. It would have ruined both our careers, a scandal like that'

What Judy Lewis remembers being told by Loretta Young

In the book, Lewis said Young told her then: 'Well, he was your father. He was darling. Sweet and very gentle.

‘He was married, so when I discovered I was pregnant with you, I was frantic and terrified. It would have ruined both our careers, a scandal like that.’

Young, one of Hollywood's most glamorous screen goddesses of the Thirties and Forties, died in 2000 aged 87. Gable died in 1960 aged 59.

Lewis, a psychotherapist and actress, of Palm Springs, California, died in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, on Friday. Her survivors include her daughter, three half-brothers and her partner, Steve Rowland.

Loretta Young American actress

Loretta Young, original name Gretchen Michaela Young   (born January 6, 1913, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.—died August 12, 2000, Los Angeles, California), motion picture actress noted for her ethereal beauty and refined, controlled portrayals of virtuous and wholesome women.

Young began her career at age four as a child extra. She later attended convent school, and at age14 she landed a part in the film Naughty but Nice (1927) that was originally intended for her sister Polly Ann. Her career blossomed as she moved quickly from bit parts to ingenues and leading ladies. She later made a smooth transition to sound films.

After a Hollywood career of more than 20 years, Young silenced many critics who regarded her as little more than a bland beauty of modest talent when she won an Oscar in 1947 for her performance in The Farmer’s Daughter. She received a second nomination for best actress in 1949 for her role as a nun in Come to the Stable. Her other notable films include The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939), The Stranger (1946), and The Bishop’s Wife (1947).

Retiring from films in 1953, Young hosted the Emmy Award-winning The Loretta Young Show on NBC television from 1953 to 1961, making her the first entertainer to receive both an Oscar and an Emmy. Though she acted in the majority of the episodes of the sentimental drama anthology, the show is remembered primarily for Young’s signature swirling entrances in which she displayed all sides of her glamorous contemporary gowns.

Young retired from acting at age 50, though she did make a brief comeback in two made-for-TV films in the late 1980s. A lifelong Catholic, Young devoted herself to religious charities throughout her career and into retirement. She was the mother of actress Judy Lewis, the daughter of Clark Gable.

Loretta Lynch Confirmed as Next Attorney General

WASHINGTON—The Senate on Thursday confirmed Loretta Lynch as the next attorney general, approving her as the nation’s top law-enforcement official at a time of national debates about police conduct, government surveillance and combating terrorism.

More than five months since she was nominated in early November, Ms. Lynch was confirmed in a 56-43 vote as the first black woman to lead the Justice Department.

The Senate took longer to approve only two other attorneys general before Ms. Lynch, according to the Congressional Research Service. She was confirmed 166 days after President Barack Obama nominated her and will replace Attorney General Eric Holder.

Speaking at a Washington event Thursday, Mr. Obama said “America will be better off” with Ms. Lynch in the job. He noted that one of his priorities is to “rebuild” trust between law enforcement and minority communities, adding that Ms. Lynch has “credibility with law enforcement, but she’s also got credibility with communities.”

A farewell ceremony for Mr. Holder is scheduled for Friday, and Ms. Lynch is expected to be sworn in on Monday.

Five months after a November nomination, Loretta Lynch has been confirmed as the next U.S. 

Attorney General. WSJ's Devlin Barrett reports. Photo: AP

“After this extended delay, I can only hope that Senate Republicans will show Loretta Lynch more respect as attorney general of the U.S. than she has received as a nominee,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

All members of the Democratic caucus and 10 Republicans supported her confirmation.
Ms. Lynch was praised by members of both parties for her work as the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, N.Y, but some Republicans criticized her defense of Mr. Obama’s plan to bypass Congress and shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.

Related Video

Loretta Lynch’s nomination for Attorney General has been through a confusing journey of political maneuvering and partisan politics. Photo: AP

 

“This nominee has given every indication she would continue the Holder Justice Department’s lawlessness,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) on the Senate floor, castigating fellow Senate
Republicans for confirming her. “There are more than a few voters back home that are asking what exactly is the difference between a Democratic and Republican majority when the exact same individual gets confirmed as attorney general.”

Mr. Cruz opposed Ms. Lynch in a procedural vote, but didn’t vote on her confirmation.
Her supporters noted the broad range of law-enforcement and legal groups across the country who had backed her nomination.

Ms. Lynch was approved by the Judiciary Committee in late February, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) delayed her confirmation vote until the Senate resolved an abortion dispute and passed an anti-trafficking bill Wednesday.

Ms. Lynch inherits an office where front-burner issues include the public debate about police misconduct, ongoing probes of Americans suspected of supporting Islamic State, and battles over government surveillance.

“As attorney general, I am sure she will draw upon those childhood experiences and the struggle of her grandparents and great grandparents when addressing the current protests over too many young lives lost in our streets,” Mr. Leahy said.

The Obama administration will also expect her to expand on the work Mr. Holder did in scaling back prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.

The sentencing reform measures sought by Mr. Holder who took office in 2009, aren’t universally embraced within the department. While his efforts have halted a decadeslong trend of a rising federal prison population, it will be up to his successors to maintain that effort.

More in Capital Journal

Timothy Heaphy, who worked with Ms. Lynch as a U.S. Attorney in Virginia, said the sentencing reforms represent “a sea change’’ in how federal prosecutors charge criminal suspects. “We’re on a course, to me, that is healthier and wiser, and I hope and expect that she will continue along that path,’’ said Mr. Heaphy, now at the law firm Hunton & Williams. “I think she will.’’

Current and former Justice Department officials noted Ms. Lynch also will take over the department at a time of intensifying oversight of how the investigative agencies—the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives—do their jobs. The head of the DEA stepped down this week in the wake of criticism of her handling of a scandal involving agents attending sex parties with prostitutes in Colombia.

Mr. Holder’s six-year tenure as attorney general was marked by pitched battles with congressional Republicans. Despite those disputes, Mr. Holder, who plans to return to a private law firm and speak on criminal justice issues, became one of Mr. Obama’s longest-serving cabinet members.

Among other things, he has been criticized on the left for not filing criminal charges against bank executives after the financial collapse, and on the right for extracting multimillion-dollar settlements from big banks for their roles in the crisis.

Early in the administration, he was rebuffed by Congress in his efforts to empty the controversial prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and bring the suspects in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to trial in New York City.

The low point of his tenure came in 2012 when House Republicans voted to hold him in contempt of Congress in a fight about documents related to a botched gunrunning investigation along the Southwest border.