Spottswood William Robinson III (July 26, 1916 – October 11, 1998) was an American civil rights lawyer, jurist, and educator who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1966 to 1989.

[2] In the early 1950s, Robinson and his law-partner Oliver Hill, working through the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, litigated several civil rights lawsuits in Virginia.

[3] Robinson also participated in Chance v. Lambeth, which invalidated carrier-enforced racial segregation in interstate transportation.

[2] Robinson was nominated by President Johnson on October 6, 1966, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated by Judge George Thomas Washington.

[9] Judge Robinson presided over the landmark case Laffey v. Northwest Airlines″ Inc. in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, delivering the opinion for the court in this pivotal case which addressed several discriminatory practices by Northwest Airlines against female flight attendants dealing with unequal pay between male pursers and female stewardesses, discriminatory hiring practices for purser positions, and inequitable treatment in seniority calculations.

It challenged long-standing discriminatory practices and set important precedents for future cases involving workplace discrimination based on sex.