John Minor Wisdom: 'O rare'.

• Author: Barnett, Robert B.

John Minor Wisdom was buried on May 17, 1999, on what would have been his ninety-fourth birthday. His death was front-page news in New Orleans. His obituary covered half a page in the New York Times. His intellect and his legal prowess were legendary. He had been immortalized in history books, won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and countless other awards, received numerous honorary degrees, and even had a federal courthouse named after him. But none of those celebrations of the "Public Man" really did justice to the complete John Minor Wisdom.

He was brilliant without ever being arrogant. He was courtly without ever being condescending. He was a judge who was never judgmental. As Judge Henry Friendly once put it, "He is wise because his spirit was uncontaminated, because he knew no violence, or hatred, or envy, or jealousy, or ill-will."(1) To be chosen to be one of his law clerks was to be admitted into a sphere of noble benevolence.

So, while others may detail and analyze the Judge's legal rulings, I would like to provide some personal reflections. And, as I struggle to find the right words to memorialize this great man, I keep coming back to an epitaph that is inscribed in Poet's Corner in London's Westminster Abbey. Amid the lengthy and flowery testimonials glorifying illustrious men and women of British letters is the plain but powerful tribute to Ben Jonson. It reads simply, "O rare."

John Minor Wisdom was not afraid to stand against his community and his times. He was a pillar of the New Orleans establishment, someone who had never personally experienced racial or religious prejudice. He believed that the U.S. Constitution guaranteed equal protection to every citizen, and he could not condone public policy that allowed anything else. In presenting the Medal of Freedom, President Clinton called him "a son of the old South who became an architect of the new South."(2) His rulings made a profound difference to the lives of millions of people in the contexts of voting rights, jury selection, employment, schools, jails, public parks, playgrounds, hotels, restaurants, bars, sports facilities, and even adoptions.

Judge Wisdom unabashedly believed in affirmative action and in muscular remedies to deal with the effects of past discrimination. His civil rights decisions made him and his family targets of pranksters and miscreants. For years, his phone would ring from 2 A.M. until 4 A.M. Two of his dogs were poisoned and rattlesnakes were...