Comments on: Real Texas Justice

Real Texas Justice

anticlock — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:08:38 -0800

Judge William Wayne Justice. 1920 -2009. Appointed to the federal bench in 1968, Judge Justice spent his career as a progressive jurist working to insure the rights of minorities, the poor and the disenfranchised. His rulings forced the State of Texas to desegregate public schools, reform its prison system and provide education to undocumented immigrants.

By: grouse

grouse — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:09:53 -0800

By: Blue Jello Elf

Blue Jello Elf — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:17:30 -0800

By: zarq

zarq — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:17:51 -0800

. Judge Justice was a hero, in the fullest sense of that word. He stood up to death threats, impeachment threats and the white hot fury of conservatives, all in the name of legislating human compassion, equality and decency. :( Zichronam livracha.

By: contessa

contessa — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:26:43 -0800

Rest in peace, your honor. Oh, and stay classy, Texas.

By: Tomorrowful

Tomorrowful — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:38:15 -0800

Judge Justice? Are you effin' kidding me? I do remember, we had a guy running for DA named Lawless. Now that takes chutzpah. Also: .

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:46:29 -0800

Wow. Amazing man.

By: Windopaene

Windopaene — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:48:34 -0800

By: IvoShandor

IvoShandor — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:49:22 -0800

It's worth noting that the Texas prison system still has a long way to go. Also, .

By: l33tpolicywonk

l33tpolicywonk — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:17:46 -0800

"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." .

By: scody

scody — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:19:18 -0800

By: thewittyname

thewittyname — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:23:10 -0800

Judge Justice. His legacy is that he lived up to his name. (He is also a reminder that even though the Supreme Court is the highest in the land, even federal district court judges can make a huge difference.)

By: DreamerFi

DreamerFi — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:42:35 -0800

By: ferdydurke

ferdydurke — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:02:32 -0800

A real hero. Thanks for posting. Otherwise I would have missed this news.

By: rtha

rtha — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:04:27 -0800

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:16:54 -0800

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:29:37 -0800

By: strixus

strixus — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:10:49 -0800

By: ursus_comiter

ursus_comiter — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:19:48 -0800

By: sueinnyc

sueinnyc — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:51:05 -0800

By: aught

aught — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:29:22 -0800

By: orange swan

orange swan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:50:27 -0800

By: ryanshepard

ryanshepard — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:57:22 -0800

By: pointless_incessant_barking

pointless_incessant_barking — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:24:33 -0800

People with names like that so rarely live up to them. .

By: longdaysjourney

longdaysjourney — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:02:19 -0800

By: miss-lapin

miss-lapin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:26:17 -0800

By: Mavri

Mavri — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:55:21 -0800

Thanks for the post. I grew up about an hour from Tyler and didn't know about Judge Justice.

By: sleepinglion

sleepinglion — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:12:08 -0800

I, too, would have missed this news without this post. Thank you, anticlock. And many thanks to Judge Justice. .

By: bakerina

bakerina — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:13:22 -0800

By: jabberjaw

jabberjaw — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:35:08 -0800

I have never heard of Judge Justice until I read this post, but I am glad to know that he existed. .

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:36:38 -0800

By: immlass

immlass — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:48:54 -0800

. I remember how much people hated him when I was a kid, but he was on the right side of pretty much everything I know he ruled on. I wish he were still with us, and in a position to do something about the Cameron Todd Willingham case. Or Sharon Keller and the Michael Richard fiasco. He will be much missed.

By: fremen

fremen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:25:58 -0800

I grew up in Tyler, and it was hard even as a kid not to know who Judge Justice was. He had a great name - a name that even a child could remember. I also knew that the town in general wasn't too fond of him, although my family had more of a neutral opinion. We weren't affected one way or another by his rulings, and lawyers don't speak ill of judges (one of my parents was an attorney). Still, the bias of the community colored a lot of my judgment towards the man. Whenever I passed by his house (it was no secret where he lived), I would always look at it with a weird mix of feelings. On the one hand, he made all these rulings that people were really unhappy about. His prison rulings were the ones that people complained about the most - they believed that his rulings were expensive and unnecessary. On the other hand, he did things that I knew were good for society. He integrated schools, and when you think about schools in Tyler you have to realize that they are still pretty segregated (although now for harder to manage socioeconomic reasons than for strict policy reasons). To think that they were even worse at some point was pretty unfathomable and terrifying. Today, as an adult, I know that he was a great man. He lived in a community that didn't like him terribly much, but he issued rulings that were fair and made the world a better place. If I could, I would go back to Texas and thank him for being a true hero towards the poor and less fortunate. Lastly, I think he made Tyler a better place. It's still a very conservative city, but the schools are better and the town is more racially cohesive than before. Tyler is not going to win any racial harmony awards, but it's not a bad place either. The other thing to remember is that the location of his home was never a secret; yet he lived there for years and years, never once fleeing town or boarding up his windows because he was so unwelcome that he felt afraid. While we may think that's a silly victory, in the general history of the south it's a great one. So with all that, I give Judge Justice my heart-felt: .