Posted on 08/12/2006 8:09:05 PM PDT by WestTexasWend
-Justice says he's tried to be right in his 38 years on federal bench, not liberal or conservative.-
After 38 years on the bench, most would think a federal judge wouldn't have anything to prove. But even after ordering some of the most sweeping reforms for Texas institutions, 86-year-old William Wayne Justice said he's still trying to live up to his name.
During the late 1970s through early 1980s, Justice's rulings from the bench of the U.S. District Court for the state's Eastern District prodded Texas to desegregate its schools, treat juvenile and adult prisoners more humanely, end jail overcrowding and provide an equal opportunity for limited-English speaking students and undocumented immigrant children to get an education.
He's the model of an activist judge, a label he says he won't deny.
"Well, it depends on the way you view my decisions," Justice said. "Others think I'm liberal. Others might see my decisions as conservative. I don't try to identify myself as anything. I don't set out to give a decision that's going to be liberal or conservative. I hope it'll be right."
With about 293 criminal and civil cases currently on his docket, Justice is now based in Austin, where he and his wife moved from Tyler, the seat of Texas' Eastern District, eight years ago to be closer to his daughter. He routinely hears his cases in Del Rio and San Antonio, with a few now and then in Austin's Thornberry Judicial Building downtown, where his chambers are.
He will hear a motion brought in February by Latino civil rights organizations asking for better enforcement of the state's bilingual education laws. The case, which he will hear in Austin in the coming weeks, originated from one he heard more than 25 years ago.
"Oh, I like it here," Justice said in his richly seasoned Texan accent while settling into a high-backed leather chair in his chambers in late July. "Austin's treated me very well."
Dressed sharply in a grey suit and extending a warm, weathered hand, Justice's calm friendliness seemed light-years away from the image painted of him as the "most hated man in East Texas."
So read the bumper stickers calling for his impeachment during the height of his most high-profile decisions.
A sixth of Tyler's 65,000 citizens in the early 1970s signed a petition seeking his removal because of his 1970 ruling that adopted the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's desegregation plan for the city. It was one the first decisions he made after his lifetime appointment by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968.
"It's distressing, but I had a duty to obey the law and the Constitution," Justice said. "I don't want to appear to be a martyr. I thought I was doing what I supposed to do."
Becoming an outcast
His is the story of a homegrown, East Texas boy who made his name in his backyard and gained respect nationwide.
But the price was ostracism by his own community.
Justice was born to Will and Jackie May Justice on Feb., 25, 1920, in Athens, 35 miles southwest of Tyler. After surviving a series of illnesses as a child, such as a chronic whooping cough, Justice said he developed a compassion for others early on.
"It's when you're weak like that, you get picked on, and I guess that's where I developed an attitude where I can understand the people that are oppressed," he said.
Justice remembers going to his father's law office as a child and cites him as his chief inspiration to follow a career in the law.
"My father told me when I was 7 or 8 years old that I was a lawyer that was going to practice with him when I got older," Justice said. Turning to look at a portrait of his father on the wall behind him, he said, "I regarded him as near divinity."
After graduating from high school and spending hours shadowing his father, Justice enrolled in law school at the University of Texas and obtained his degree in 1942. Just a few weeks later as World War II raged, he enlisted in the Army.
After he returned in February 1946 from a tour of duty that took him to India Justice started practicing alongside his father in Athens. While in private practice, he helped rally local support for the Democratic party and Johnson during his bid for the Senate. Justice also served as Athens' city attorney twice, from 1948 to 1950 and 1952 to 1958.
On July 1, 1961, he took office for the first of his two terms as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.
"It was a fun job. It wasn't all roses, though," said Justice, recalling that he handled as many as 1,000 cases at a time. "It was very, very hard and demanding work. Getting ready for the trial was the hardest thing for me to do. You have to investigate every single aspect of the case and try to figure out the best way to present it in court."
During this time, he developed a strong friendship with U.S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough, D-Texas, who encouraged then-President Johnson to name Justice as a replacement after U.S. Judge Joe W. Sheehy's death in 1967, Justice said.
"I was in (Johnson's) presence a number of times, but I don't recall a personal connection," Justice said, pointing to a picture of LBJ and his wife, Lady Bird, in his office, "though, he was an authentic political genius."
Though Tyler residents celebrated the appointment of a federal judge sitting in the local courthouse, it didn't last long. Justice got to work and quickly stepped into what would become a 30-year strained relationship with the small, conservative town.
In one of his earliest decisions, he found the policy forbidding long hair for men at Tyler Junior College unconstitutional, raising conservative eyebrows in the area.
But he gained national notoriety when in 1971 he ordered the Texas Education Agency to desegregate schools, specifically in areas like East Texas, after a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice showed schools were still segregated 17 years after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
"We've had more cases involving discrimination, I suppose, in Texas than most other Southern states," Justice said. "We've had discrimination against blacks and against Mexican Americans. You name it; we discriminate against it until somebody tries to correct it."
Hate mail, obscene phone calls and death threats became a staple of Justice's life in Tyler. And although it didn't stop his decisions, he still remembers the toll it took on his wife, Sue, and daughter, Ellen.
"I don't visit Tyler very often," Justice said.
In compliance with Justice's order in the desegregation of schools, the TEA ordered Tyler's Robert E. Lee High School to cease using Confederate memorabilia, such as Confederate uniforms for its marching band, and "Dixie" as its fight song.
"I remember the high school's kids would circle around the courthouse waving the Confederate flag and made a lot of noise, which was disrupting for everyone in the building," said Myra Rachelle, a Tyler resident and former deputy clerk who worked with Justice from 1962 until his departure in 1998. "People would refuse to come to (Justice's) house to do repairs, like on Sue's stove, because they disliked him and his decisions. My husband, who wasn't a repairman but knew how to do handy things, had to end up going over there because no one else would do it."
Rachelle said that many Tyler citizens would snarl if someone mentioned his name and feared being associated with him in any way, not because of how he was as a person, but rather what he stood for. "People around here are very strong in their really conservative opinions. If you were caught talking to him, they would think that you were taking his side."
Justice said, "As a practicing lawyer in my hometown — and just like all of rest of East Texas and the South I suppose — if a white person announced that they were in favor of integration, they would face a violent reaction. You wouldn't have had a law practice, so I wasn't brave enough as a practitioner to risk it. That changed when I become a judge."
Immigrant education
In Plyler v. Doe, Justice found in 1978 that undocumented children have the same right to attend public schools in Texas as U.S. citizens. Appeals ultimately lead to a landmark 1982 Supreme Court ruling that extended the right nationwide.
"I thought injustice was being done. It was unconstitutional," Justice said. "The Supreme Court upheld me 5-4. As a result of that decision, I think probably several million children got an education. And that's the case I'm most proud of."
Jill Kerper Mora, associate professor at San Diego State University's School of Teacher Education, is a former consultant with the Texas Education Agency and a bilingual education teacher for the Houston school district.
Mora said Justice was regarded — and vilified — as a protector of immigrants' rights nationwide.
"He really got the issue of bilingual education and immigrants' rights to education," Mora said. "He was meticulous about hearing the arguments, and that frustrated his critics."
Lucas Guttentag, who now is director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Immigrants' Rights Project, clerked for Justice in 1979 when Justice was putting the finishing touches on Plyler v. Doe.
"What makes him especially remarkable is that he continues to see the Constitution as a living document to protect the rights of all," Guttentag said.
Justice made his mark on the Texas prison system with his decision in a lawsuit brought by inmate David Ruiz, who sued the director of the Texas Department of Corrections, alleging overcrowding and brutality.
The 1979 trial lasted 159 days and involved more than 350 witnesses. After a year and a half of analysis, Justice ordered an overhaul of the prison system to stem some of the abuses he found. He oversaw enforcement of his ruling through 2001.
"I was haunted by the horrendous tales of physical abuse," Justice said. "You try to avoid emotion . . . but you don't always succeed though."
Justice recalls much of mainstream Texas media saying he overstepped his boundaries and was a judge "out of control" and "spreading his activist views."
"It was as a tremendous burden to undertake that kind of a case. But it was filed in my court, and I had to dispose of it," he said. "That's what you have to do when you are a judge."
Justice's rulings caught the eye of Frank Kemerer, a regents professor of education law at the University of North Texas who wrote a 1991 judicial biography on Justice and his most noted cases.
"In the midst of so many institutional reform cases that had come before the court, I saw his name in the paper and said, 'I gotta meet this guy,' " said Kemerer, who first met Justice at one of the judge's few public speaking engagements in the mid-1980s. "He was not the stern, authoritative judge type that acts like he knows everything."
"I remember distinctly after he spoke, I found him to be friendly and down-to-earth."
Kemerer spent five years interviewing Justice and those who worked with, loved and hated him and says today he's convinced that Justice tries to give justice to those that come before his court. "The activist judge label misses so much of who he is."
Even amid recent federal policy reforms such as the Patriot Act that give expanded powers to the executive branch, Justice remains optimistic that the checks and balances system is still at work.
"In the course of time, our separation of powers will work out," Justice said. "After the Civil War, the Congress had the lead. In other times of crisis, the judiciary took the lead. And now, they claim the executive is taking the lead. That's been our history."
While most people his age are reveling in retirement, Justice walks up to seven miles a week, works out at the YMCA and does some minor weightlifting.
"When I was about 40, I weighed about 200 pounds and smoked cigars and cigarettes, and my belt was getting pretty far out," he said, laughing. "I went to a conference of the 5th Judicial Circuit (court system) held in St. Petersburg, Fla. I was looking out my hotel window and saw Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black out there playing tennis, then in his late 70s. So that's when I quit smoking, got on a diet and exercise routine and went down to 154 pounds — and still weigh around that today."
Although he recently got a hearing aid and mentioned that he's developing cataracts, Justice said he's determined to keep trying cases as "long as I can."
Though he doesn't have a date set for retirement, Justice does ponder how his decisions will be regarded in the future.
In a 1992 essay in the George Washington Law Review, Justice wrote, "Unless we are to do away with the Constitution, federal courts will continue to be called upon to order state institutions to remedy constitutional violations, and such remedies ordinarily will be more specific than a mere prohibition of illegal activity."
Today, Justice says, "I was never underprivileged, but I have human feelings. If you see someone in distress, well, you want to help them if you can.
"I hope people remember me for someone trying to do justice. That's what I've tried to do."
William Wayne Justice
Born: Feb. 25, 1920; Athens, 35 miles southwest of Tyler
Occupation: U.S. federal judge for the Eastern District of Texas. Appointed in 1968 by President Johnson. Although his court is based in Tyler, he now lives in Austin and hears cases throughout South Texas.
Education: University of Texas School of Law, 1942
Military Service: U.S. Army, 1942 to 1946
Family: Married 59 years to Sue; one child, Ellen
Religion: Raised Baptist, now Episcopalian
Hobbies: Reading, exercising, movies; last seen: 'The Devil Wears Prada'
Worth noting: In 2004, UT renamed one of its law centers the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law.
High profile rulings
United States v. Texas, 1971. Ordered the Texas Education Agency to desegregate schools after a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice showed that schools were still segregated despite the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
Morales v. Turman, 1973. Found 'cruel and unusual punishment' in Texas Youth Commission facilities after a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of juvenile convicts. After a five-week trial, Justice said he heard of 'truly shocking conditions,' and after almost a year of reviewing the trial, he ordered a comprehensive review. He remembers being criticized heavily by East Texas media for the decision.
Plyler v. Doe, 1978. Found that undocumented children and young adults have the same right to attend public schools in Texas as U.S. citizens. Appeals led to a landmark 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that extended the right nationwide. Justice said he expects to see more lawsuits in the future regarding undocumented immigrants' rights.
Ruiz v. Estelle, 1981. Agreed with Texas inmate David Ruiz, who filed a 30-page, handwritten lawsuit in 1972 alleging that Texas prisons were so brutally crowded that they violated the U.S. Constitution. Reform led to $2 billion in improvements. Released oversight of prisons in 2002.
United States v. Texas, 1981. Ruled that Texas Education Agency needed to enforce bilingual education laws. Last February, a group of Latino civil rights organizations filed a motion in continuation of this case, in which they're asking for better enforcement of bilingual education laws by the TEA after state tests show poor results for limited-English speaking students. Justice has agreed to hear the argument but, as of Friday afternoon, a date has not been set.
'Nuff said.
Hmmm... then the floodgates opened.
Justice is a poster child for limits on how long a judge can sit on a bench.
Recently he ruled that it was illegal for children (who tended to be mostly white) to transfer from one public school district (a mostly black district) which was pitiful to one that had a very good reputation for excellence but was mostly white. He said this violated desegregation laws.
Just a few weeks ago, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals gave Justice the smack down and reversed his ruling.
Oh wait, that was Bufort T. Justice.
Title had me going there for a minute. I thought it was Stevens!
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