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U.S. Distrivt Judge Barbara K. Hackett
Barbara K. Hackett, a no-nonsense judge who served more than two decades on the federal bench in Detroit as a magistrate judge and district judge, died Sunday at her Brighton home. She was 90.
“Judge Hackett was a beautiful and strong woman,” Chief Detroit U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood said in a statement. “Being strong included being savvy and smart and yet ‘gentlewomanly.’ She was tough when necessary. The court will miss her spirit and drive. My thoughts go out to the family.”
Hackett was appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1986.
She received a philosophy degree in 1948 and a law degree from U of D Law School in 1950. Hackett, a talented pianist, considered a career in music, but opted for the law, according to an obituary issued by the court.
On the first day of law school, Hackett met her future husband, Patrick E. Hackett, when he insisted that she give him her locker. She refused, but they eventually dated and married in 1952. They had seven daughters. Patrick Hackett, a prominent railroad, died in December 2017 after 65 years of marriage.
In 1973, she was appointed a federal magistrate judge in Detroit. In 1984, she quit to become counsel to her husband’s law firm and founded the Republican Women’s Forum. She served as president of the Women’s Economic Club, was a member of the Board of Directors of the Economic Club of Detroit and the Board of Trustees for the University of Detroit. In addition, she founded
and served as the first chair of the Criminal Law Section of the Michigan Bar Association.
“Barbara Hackett was a trailblazer who helped the women who came behind her at a time when there weren’t many of us in the profession,” said former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Maura Corrigan in a statement. “She was a faithful servant who did her job and deserves to be celebrated. They will be dancing in Paradise when she enters the Pearly Gates.”
Hackett, the oldest of two daughters, said her parents insisted that both girls get a college education. “My parents decided we were going to college because they had lost everything in the Depression and an education was something that people couldn’t take from you,”
“I had parents, especially my dad, who felt women could do anything,” Hackett said in an interview iwth the Court in August. “When I mentioned law school, he thought that was great. Some of my classmates couldn’t go to college because their parents would only educate the boys. We were generations ahead of that.”
"Everyone who appeared before Judge Barbara Hackett knew they were coming before a no-nonsense, well-prepared, and highly dignified judge who would listen to all sides and render a fair and carefully considered ruling – in a timely fashion,” said U.S. District Judge Terrence Berg, who tried cases before her as an assistant U.S. attorney. “She exuded decorum and rectitude on the bench and was deeply respected by the entire bar."
In 1997, Hackett transferred to the U.S. Courthouse in Ann Arbor. She went on senior status on April 8,1997 but continued with a full caseload until 1999. She retired for health reasons on March 1, 2000.
“Once I left that building and hung up the robes, that was it,” Hackett said in the 2018 interview. “I was not Judge Hackett on the street. I was Barbara Hackett.”
Asked how she want to be remembered as a judge, Hackett said: “As someone who cared about people.”
