He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1940 to 1946, and was in the United States Army during World War II, serving as an Air Corps Lieutenant Colonel from 1942 to 1946.
[1] On October 6, 1966, Smith was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia vacated by Judge Luther Youngdahl.
Smith was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 20, 1966, and received his commission on November 3, 1966.
He served as Chief Judge and as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1981 to 1982.
Smith served in that capacity until his death on September 4, 1992, in Washington, D.C.[1] In 1977, Smith ordered all of the FBI's records concerning Martin Luther King Jr. to be sealed in the National Archives and Records Administration for 50 years.