John Minor Wisdom

John Minor Wisdom (May 17, 1905 - May 15, 1999), one of the "Fifth Circuit Four", and a liberal Republican from Louisiana, was a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit during the 1950s and 1960s, when that court became known for a series of decisions crucial in advancing the civil rights of African-Americans. At that time, the Fifth Circuit included not only Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas (its jurisdiction since October 1, 1981), but also Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Panama Canal Zone.

Wisdom was born in New Orleans and graduated from the prestigious Isidore Newman School. In 1925, he received an A.B. degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. In 1929, he received an LL.B. from Tulane Law School. He was in the United States Army Lieutenant Colonel from 1942 to 1946. He was in private practice of law in New Orleans, Louisiana from 1929 to 1957. He was an Adjunct professor of law, Tulane University from 1938 to 1957.

As a young man, Wisdom was a Democrat, but he left that party in reaction to what he perceived as the corrupt administration of Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr. As the Republican National Committeeman from Louisiana, Wisdom was instrumental in securing the nomination of Dwight D. Eisenhower at the 1952 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Wisdom was also credited for helping Eisenhower to win Louisiana in the 1956 general election, the first time Louisiana had voted Republican in 80 years. Eisenhower appointed Wisdom to the Fifth Circuit bench in 1957 in what was seen as a reward for his services. Wisdom was nominated by President Eisenhower on March 14, 1957, to a seat vacated by Wayne G. Borah. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 26, 1957, and received his commission on June 27, 1957.

Wisdom assumed senior status on January 15, 1977, but continued to hear cases until his death in 1999. Judge Wisdom was a member of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) from its creation in 1968 and was then the Panel’s chairman from 1975 until 1978., and he served on the Special Court created under the Regional Rail Reorganization Act starting in 1975, becoming presiding judge from 1986, when Judge Henry Friendly retired, until 1996 when the Special Court was dissolved. President Bill Clinton awarded Wisdom the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993. On May 25, 1994, the Fifth Circuit's headquarters in New Orleans was renamed the John Minor Wisdom U.S. Court of Appeals Building.

Judge Wisdom's former law clerks include U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander; Judge William H. Pryor, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; Judge Martin Leach-Cross Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana; Judge D. Brock Hornby of the United States District Court for the District of Maine; U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry Brown of the Eastern District of Louisiana; U.S. Magistrate Judge Viktor V. Pohorelsky of the Eastern District of New York; Justice Nora M. Manella of the California Court of Appeal; Professor Philip Frickey of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law; Professor Martha Field of Harvard Law School; Ricki Tigert Helfer, former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Jack Weiss, Chancellor of Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center; Barry Sullivan, former dean of the Washington and Lee University School of Law; and Gail B. Agrawal, dean of the University of Iowa College of Law.

Upon his death, Wisdom left all of his writings, papers, and a variety of other personal effects, to Tulane University Law School, which now displays them in the law school building, Weinmann Hall.

Wisdom is one of the subjects of the book Unlikely Heroes by Jack Bass, about the southern federal judges who helped implement the desegregation of the South. A full-length biography, Champion of Civil Rights: Judge John Minor Wisdom, was written by Professor Joel William Friedman of Tulane Law School, and was published in January 2009 by Louisiana State University Press.