MALDEF Mourning the Loss of Judicial Giant Judge William Wayne Justice
Judge Justice ruled on a number of historic civil rights cases including Plyler v. Doe
October 15, 2009
“Judge Justice combined compassion and a keen social awareness with a brilliant legal mind to bring a new era of civil rights enforcement to Texas. His decisions in the area of education, including the case of which he was most proud, Plyler v. Doe, guaranteed access to public schools for millions of children in Texas and throughout the U.S.”
Judge Justice was a tremendous figure in our nation’s history, ruling on a number of groundbreaking civil rights cases over his 41 years on the federal bench, including Plyler v. Doe and U.S. v Texas, which ended desegregated schools and mandated the education of English Language Learners throughout the state.
Demonstrating his commitment to our judicial system, Judge Justice, at the time of his death at age 89, was still a sitting U.S. District Judge in Austin, TX.
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