Richard Arnold, 68; Was Considered for U.S. Supreme Court

Richard S. Arnold, 68, a federal appellate judge who was considered for a U.S. Supreme Court nomination, died Thursday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He had had chronic lymphocytic leukemia since the 1970s and died of an infection during treatment.

A resident of Little Rock, Ark., Arnold was considered for the highest court by President Clinton in 1994 as a replacement for retiring Justice Harry A. Blackmun. After consulting Arnold’s doctors, Clinton decided against the nomination because of the disease.

A native of Texarkana, Texas, Arnold was a classics scholar at Yale and graduated first in his class at Harvard Law School. He was named to the U.S. District Court in Arkansas by President Carter in 1978 and elevated two years later to the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, in St. Louis.

Arnold’s decisions included a 1979 ruling that prohibited Arkansas from restricting girls to half-court basketball while allowing boys to play full court -- a precursor to the movement for gender equality in sports programs. He was particularly respected for his eloquent writing on individuals’ constitutional rights.