William Brevard Hand

Who was William Brevard Hand?

William Brevard Hand was a United States federal judge.

Born in Mobile, Alabama, Hand served from 1943 to 1946 in the United States Army during World War II. In 1947, he received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. In 1949, he was awarded his LL.B. from the University of Alabama School of Law. He was in private practice in Mobile, Alabama from 1949 to 1971.

Hand became involved in the Republican Party by 1962, when he supported James D. Martin of Gadsden for the U.S. Senate against the veteran Democrat J. Lister Hill of Montgomery. On July 26, 1971, Hand was nominated by U.S. President Richard M. Nixon to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama vacated by Daniel H. Thomas. Hand was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 21, 1971, and received his commission on September 22, 1971. He served as chief judge from 1981 to 1989 and assumed senior status on January 19, 1989.

Hand received national attention when he ruled for the plaintiffs in a case against the Alabama school board claiming that textbooks used in Alabama promoted secular humanism, and as such were in violation of the Establishment clause.