Charles Sifton: Judge allowed N.Y. mayor to seek 3rd term

Charles P. "Tony" Sifton, 74, a federal judge for 30 years whose ruling in January allowed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for a third term, died Nov. 9 at his home in Brooklyn, N.Y. He had complications from sarcoidosis, a lung disease.

In his years on the federal bench, where from 1995 to 2000 he was chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Judge Sifton handled many major cases. One, in 1982, ended discriminatory physical strength tests that prevented women from joining fire departments.

Another, in 1991, permitted the abortion pill, known as RU-486 or mifepristone, to come into the United States from France. Although the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Judge Sifton's decision, the pill was approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration in 2000.

Charles Proctor Sifton was born in New York City in 1935 and graduated from Harvard University in 1957 and Columbia Law School in 1961. The next year, he became chief counsel to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigation of foreign government lobbying. The probe resulted in amendments to the Foreign Agents Registration Act in 1964.

He served as an assistant U.S. attorney of the Southern District of New York until 1969, and then returned to private practice. In 1977, he was appointed a federal judge by President Jimmy Carter.

His marriage to book editor Elisabeth Sifton, the daughter of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife, Susan Rowland; three sons from his first marriage, Toby, John and Sam, who is the New York Times restaurant critic; and three grandchildren.

-- Walter Pincus