Jesse Smith Henley

Jesse Smith Henley (May 18, 1917 – October 18, 1997) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas and the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

Education and career

Henley was born in Saint Joe in Searcy County in northern Arkansas to Benjamin Harrison Henley and the former Jessie Genoa Willis Smith. In 1941, Henley received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville. He was in private practice in Fayetteville from 1941 to 1954. From 1943 to 1945, he was a clerk and a Referee in Bankruptcy for the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. In 1954, he became an associate general counsel in the Federal Communications Commission. In 1956, he was named a director in the Office of Administrative Procedure of the United States Department of Justice.

Federal judicial service

With the retirement of Judge Thomas Clark Trimble III, the Arkansas Republican Party State Committee recommended Osro Cobb, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas as Trimble's successor. Trimble had sworn in Cobb as United States Attorney in 1954. A former Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, Cobb carried the support of Democratic United States Senators John Little McClellan and J. William Fulbright. Attorney General of the United States Herbert Brownell Jr., had also promised to support Cobb for the judicial opening. The Little Rock Integration Crisis, however, ensued, and Cobb continued as United States Attorney during the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock. Brownell, meanwhile, resigned and was replaced by William P. Rogers. Cobb later said that his oil investments began to multiply and paid far more than he would have earned as a federal judge had he gotten the appointment that he sought.

Henley received a recess appointment from President Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 25, 1958, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas vacated by Judge Thomas Clark Trimble III. He was nominated to the same seat on January 17, 1959. His service was terminated on September 8, 1959, due to appointment to a different judicial seat, never having been confirmed by the United States Senate for Judge Trimble's seat. His service would have otherwise terminated on September 11, 1959, due to the pending adjournment of the Senate.