Clyde Atkins; U.S. Judge Ruled for Homeless

Clyde Atkins, a feisty and independent federal judge who stymied U.S. repatriation plans for Cuban and Haitian refugees and asserted the rights of the homeless in a landmark 1992 ruling, has died.

Known as “Hard Luck Clyde” because of the tough cases that came before his federal district court in Miami, Atkins was 84 at his death in Miami on March 11 of colon cancer.

In 1992 he set a legal precedent in recognizing the rights of the homeless to protection when he barred Miami police from harassing them and ordered the city to provide public “safety zones” where street people could eat, sleep and bathe.

“The homeless do not have the choice, much less the luxury, of being in the privacy of their own homes. Consequently, arresting homeless people for harmless acts they are forced to perform in public effectively punishes them for being homeless,” he ruled.

His decision addressed a simmering dispute in Miami in the early 1990s over the rise of two large shantytowns near downtown tourist sites and shopping areas. Police, responding to complaints from merchants, had been rounding up the homeless, burning their possessions and ordering them out of the area.

The ruling angered city officials, who said that it was a step toward institutionalizing homelessness. But homeless defenders embraced it as a major victory at a time when more cities were taking aggressive stands against the homeless, arresting them and barring them from public property.

Miami officials threatened to appeal Atkins’ decision but later worked with homeless advocates out of court, settling in 1997 with an agreement to offer programs to help police officers understand the causes of homelessness and the rights of homeless people.

In 1991, another blistering issue of constitutional rights--those of refugees--landed in Atkins’ courtroom. About 7,700 Haitians had fled their island nation after the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrande Aristide and were being detained in Cuba at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo. Refugee advocates filed a motion to permanently ban their forced repatriation until the INS improved its process for hearing asylum applications.

Government lawyers claimed that the refugees were ineligible for asylum because they fled for economic, not political, reasons. The government wanted to send the refugees home.

Atkins sided with the refugees’ defenders, issuing repeated injunctions barring the government from repatriating the Haitians. Atkins responded similarly when the government wanted to repatriate 32,000 Cuban rafters in 1994, after Fidel Castro lifted his ban on leaving the island. His injunctions on behalf of the Haitians and the Cubans were overturned by appeals judges.

Atkins, who grew up in Miami and graduated from the University of Florida Law School, was once described by veteran trial lawyer Milton Hirsch as an old-time Southern judge, “careful and concerned with duty, never tempted to rush through the docket.”

One of the few times that his judicial temper was pushed to the limit was during the sparring over the Haitians’ fate.

On one occasion, when the chief government lawyer refused to discuss a one-day extension of the ban, Atkins stalked out of the courtroom, abruptly ending the hearing. The government lawyer was then U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr, now the Whitewater independent counsel.

Atkins is survived by his wife, Esther Castillo Atkins, a daughter, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.