J. Skelly Wright - Career As A Court of Appeals Judge

Career As A Court of Appeals Judge

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy nominated Wright to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to fill a seat vacated by Judge E. Barrett Prettyman. Replacing Wright in New Orleans was the national civil defense director, Frank Burton Ellis, who filled the judicial slot for only three years before taking senior status. Ellis worked to slow some of Wright's civil rights rulings. On the court of appeals, Wright helped to protect the rights of African-Americans in Hobson v. Hansen (eliminating "tracking systems" in schools), and interpreting the concept of contract unconscionability in order to prevent the exploitation of the poor in Williams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co. He created an implied warranty of habitability in Javins v. First National Realty Corp. (1970). Wright served as Chief Judge of the DC Circuit between 1978-1981.

In 1986, Wright achieved senior status, his seat being succeeded by Douglas H. Ginsburg. Wright died in 1988 in Westmoreland Hills, Maryland. Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. wrote a memoriam for Judge Wright in the Harvard Law Review.