I prefer Buford T. Justice.
Posted on 10/14/2009 6:28:41 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
U.S. District Judge Justice Dies In Austin
By Betty Waters Staff Writer
U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice, formerly of Tyler, whose landmark rulings led to widespread desegregation of Texas public schools and an overhaul of the Texas prison system, died Tuesday in Austin, according to sources.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Guthrie said she was informed in a phone call from Justice's longtime secretary, Debbie McGee, who had talked to Judge Justice's daughter.
His daughter said he died Tuesday afternoon and the funeral will be at 10 a.m. Monday at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin, Judge Guthrie said.
Justice, who was born in Athens in 1920, was known for his decisions safeguarding the rights of minorities and for addressing discrimination in schools and housing. His decisions addressed voting rights, education of immigrant children and other major social issues.
Justice earned his undergraduate and law degrees from The University of Texas, served in the U.S. Army and returned to East Texas, where he practiced law with his father in Athens and was city attorney for several years.
President John F. Kennedy selected Justice in 1961 as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas and President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Justice to the federal bench in 1968 in Tyler.
"I know that he made a lot of controversial decisions (and) I thought he was a wonderful human being," Judge Guthrie said. "All the people I knew in Tyler that had ever met Judge Justice came away saying 'That is the nicest man I think I've ever met. He was just a really decent person."
Justice was thrust into the limelight with his desegregation opinions in the beginning, Judge Guthrie recalled.
In those rulings, she said, "He was following what the Supreme Court said the law was and that made him somewhat unpopular amongst a certain segment of the population. Of course, it's been years ago, and now it's hard to believe that it was so controversial then schools were going to be desegregated. He did it when he knew it wasn't going to be a popular decision and he did it because he thought that's what the law required of him to do."
His whole life as a judge was devoted to doing what the law required, Judge Guthrie said.
She described Justice as "a very courageous judge and a great man, so kind and thoughtful and so nice."
His associates were sad when he left Tyler and went to Austin to finish his years on the bench, Judge Guthrie said. He reportedly moved to be closer to his family, daughter and son-in-law, Ellen and Eric Liebrock, and a granddaughter.
Judge Guthrie said she knew of Justice before she came to Tyler as a lawyer "because his reputation was so deep and wide in the state." She said she came to know Justice as a friend some 30 years ago first because her late husband, John Hanna, was the U.S. attorney when Judge Justice was chief judge and he was also her chief judge after she was appointed U.S. magistrate judge.
Leonard Davis met Justice upon moving to Tyler in 1977 after graduating from law school, and his first case tried was in Justice's court.
They became friends. "While we came from different political persuasions, I had a great deal of respect for him and I tried many cases in his court," Davis recalled.
Davis, now a U.S. district judge who sits in the courtroom Justice used in Tyler, said "all of the Eastern District of Texas court family is greatly saddened by his death. He will be greatly missed by all of those who were friends and admirers of his."
Davis added, that "Judge Justice served with great distinction as a hardworking and intelligent jurist. He was fair-minded and he always tried to do what he believed was right, no matter what the repercussions to him personally. I just don't think you could ask for a federal judge that worked harder and tried to do what was right more than Judge Justice."
Davis added, "You might not always agree with him on all of his decisions, but that's going to be the case with any judge and he had some very, very tough cases to decide during his career."
Justice handled all of the Tyler desegregation cases and there were repercussions toward him in the community because of his rulings on desegregation and other matters, Davis said. "He was controversial at times," Davis observed.
Another significant case Justice handled was the Ruiz prison case. According to histories, it arose in 1972 when a Texas prison inmate, David Ruiz, filed a civil rights alleging he was confined under unconstitutional conditions, given inadequate medical care and subjected to unlawful solitary confinement.
According to legal histories, the case led to a complete overhaul of the Texas prison system. Justice also ordered the Texas Education Agency to begin desegregating public schools, a ruling upheld on appeal by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In a 1982 ruling, Justice's decision opened the doors for children of undocumented immigrants to attend public schools.
The William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law was established in his honor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Law in 2004 to promoter equal justice through legal education, scholarship and public service.
Justice received many honors and recognitions, such as the Morris Dees Justice Award given annually to a lawyer who has devoted his or her career to serving the public interest and pursuing justice.
Is Ausrin near Teras?
“Ausrin”
Anywhere near San Anronio?
;o)
Come on, give me a break. I still have sleep in my eyes.
This Texan won’t be shedding any tears for that crazy SOB!
LBJ knew what he was when he appointed him and did it anyway!
That is the Asian-American version.
He probably had more of an influence on events in Texas than any other single person.
That's all I need to know.Mooris Dees is among the filthiest pieces of excrement to have ever drawn breath.If this judge was given this "award"...and ACCEPTED it....then I'll wager that he's rotting in hell as I type.
Is this the guy that ended the “block captain” (?) system, where trusted inmates ran the prison blocks? After it ended, untrained and unfamiliar “professional” correctional officers lost all control and the prisoners began forming racial gangs to fill the gap.
hahahahaa...sorry.
I believe that he is your man.
If by that you mean he needlessly cost Texans more $$$ and aggravation than any single person in history I agree!
I prefer Buford T. Justice.
William Wayne was an IDIOT and LBJ knew that when he appointed him!
Just like the “Great Society”, he is another gift from LBJ that keeps on giving.
No single elected official could have ever destroyed so much, so fast.
And a good deal of that is unknown to many.
Most know about the prison system havoc but have no idea what he did to public education in Texas.
/johnny
I believe he has a seat next to Barefoot Sanders.
/johnny
Just another “hate America first” Landslide Lyndon buddie like Bill Moyers. He was not our best from Texas!
The high school on the side of town that is experiencing all of the growth is 55 years old.
Bill Moyers is our equivalent to Jimmah Carter. Throw in Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite.
Very true. I've brought up his name numerous times over the years to blank stares.
When someone is urinating on your head and telling you it's rainin' you sure ought to know who it is.
No kidding! Where the hell did all these libs come from, not the Texicans that beat Santa Anna. Probably carpet baggers slipped in during “reconstruction” (now there was a really good big GOV program..... sarc//).
They are the ancestors of those who wanted to negotiate with Santa Anna before San Jacinto. “Forget Goliad and the Alamo. Give peace a chance. Maybe he will give us all of the land east of the Neches River in exchange.”
“I’ll just say that in Texas, he wasn’t to popular.”
You got that right! I once was a witness in his court and he is just as bad up close!
I bet he looks a lot worse right about now.
Desegregating schools is a bad thing?
Is it a good thing?
It certainly has reduced the level of education for black kids. - It has turned the schools into battle fields rather than edifices of education.
Using kids for political purposes is always a bad thing.
Not the act of desegregation itself but the policy that new schools have to be built equitably on both sides of town. All the growth is to the south but it is very difficult to build new schools without catering to his old rulings. Tyler is a fast growing town but the last high school on the south side of town was built in 1955, middle school around 1972, and other than one new elementary two years ago, it was around 1980. Now, there is a large private school contingent that votes down any bond proposal. The last bond elections were to basically gut 50 to 100-year old elementary schools and replace them.
I’ll be a good Christian and say RIP, but this man demonstrated the enormous danger and damage posed by leftist activists on the bench unrestrained in their power and why people like this have no business in such a capacity beyond the legislative, the proper and legal venue for changing policy.
Why should they not do this as they are paying both property taxes to support public school physical plant that their own children will never use and the cost of sending their children to private schools as well?
If things were as they should be in a truly free and capitalistic society there would be no such things as public (state run) schools.
I agree with you in that government (especially the federal) needs to be taken out of the school system. The town is basically stuck at an impasse. Most people in this town don’t have the $30,000 a year to send their four kids to school. Oh well, we keep the portable salesman happy.
If they didn’t have to pay all those property taxes to support government schools and there was a true free market in education it wouldn’t cost anything like $30,000 a year.
Maybe $2,500!
Here is a ruling that we are still paying for today.
He ordered changes and appointed a special master to make sure they were implemented. Justice found the state in contempt in 1987. Voters later that year approved a half-billion dollars in bond for prison construction, the first step in an unprecedented building program that today includes more than 100 prisons housing some 154,000 inmates.
Justice ended federal oversight of the system in 2002.
Here is what you were talking about.
Yes indeed!
You are so correct. Unfortunately, my kids are all ending their schooling so it will be someone else's fight.
Rearry?
Hey, that is old news from yesterday. I am awake now.
“Desegregating schools is a bad thing?”
Ever hear the saying “one bad apple ruins the barrel”? Now we’ve got the kids thinking its cool to act like hoody gangbangas and hos.
How’s that forced school intergration worked out for ya America? Oh, but we FEEL so much better, our intentions were good. Forgetting of course that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Exactly.
I was watching a discover channel show on gangs on Sunday, and they covered the ABT (Aryan Brotherhood Texas) and how this gang arose from nothing out of that decision.
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