Stephen Sanders Chandler Jr.

Born in Blount County, Tennessee, Chandler received a Bachelor of Laws from University of Kansas School of Law in 1922.[1] He was in private practice of law in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma from 1922 to 1943.[1]

Chandler was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 1, 1943, to the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, to a new seat created by 54 Stat. 219.[1] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 10, 1943, and received his commission on May 13, 1943.[1] He served as Chief Judge from 1956 to 1969.[1] He assumed senior status on October 20, 1975.[1] His service was terminated on April 27, 1989, due to his death.[1] He had a reputation for contentiousness and in his treatment of counsel, he could be short and cutting. He was charged by a local district attorney for the unlawful appropriation of land, even though there was little evidence to support the charge and it appeared that the district attorney acted more out of a vendetta than fidelity to the state laws. Nonetheless, by 1965 Oklahoma's public could read that Chandler had been accused of a crime, and had also bullied the United States Attorney into prosecuting a local attorney that Chandler believed had committed perjury.[2] Moreover, Chandler published a law review article damning the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the very appellate court which accepted appeals from his court.[3]

Chandler worked with Oklahoma Judge William A. Berry to expose corruption on the Oklahoma Supreme Court after reading a confidential testimony by one of the accused justices. He supported Berry's recommendation that they allow Oklahoma lawmaker, G. T. Blankenship, to make a speech about the contents in an open session of the Oklahoma House of Representatives on January 21, 1965. The House soon approved a formal investigation that led to the impeachment and indictment of Justices N. B. Johnson and Earl Welch.[7]

• Chairman of the Judicial Administration of the American Bar Association, 1959-60.[8]
• Member of the Governing council of the Inter-American Bar Association, 1956-1973.[8]

Chandler married Margaret Patterson in 1922. She predeceased him. They had one daughter and two sons.[8]

According to the New York Times, Judge Chandler died April 27, 1989 in an unnamed New York city hospital. The cause of death was not stated, but the paper reported that he had been suffering from pneumonia and ulcers.[5] The Tulsa World reported that Chandler had died in Presbyterian Hospital in New York City while being treated for pneumonia and bleeding ulcer for about two weeks. His grandson, Stephen Chandler Sims, told the World that the judge had been treated for a bleeding ulcer during the previous summer.[8]

• Stephen Sanders Chandler Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.