William Wayne Justice - Honors and Recognition

Honors and Recognition

In 2004, the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law was established in his honor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. The Justice Center promotes equal justice for all through legal education, scholarship and public service.

On November 16, 2006, Justice received the first "Morris Dees Justice Award" given annually to a lawyer who has devoted his career to serving the public interest and pursuing justice, and whose work has brought about positive change in the community, state, or nation. It was created by the international law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and The University of Alabama School of Law to honor Morris Dees for his lifelong devotion to public service. Dees, who is co-founder and chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, presented the award at a ceremony in Skadden offices in New York City.

Although his career on the bench has been a long and distinguished one, Justice was best known for Ruiz v. Estelle and United States v. Texas.

In 1972, Texas prison inmate David Ruiz filed a fifteen page handwritten civil rights complaint alleging he was confined under unconstitutional conditions, harassed by prison officials, given inadequate medical care, and subjected to unlawful solitary confinement. His complaint was combined with others to become Ruiz v. Estelle. The trial, which began in October 1978, lasted a year; 349 witnesses testified. The case resulted in the complete destruction of the Texas prison system.

In November 1970, Judge Justice ordered the Texas Education Agency to begin desegregating Texas public schools. The order, known as United States v. Texas applied to more than 1,000 school districts and 2 million students, and was upheld on appeal by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Justice died on October 13, 2009, in Austin. Though Governor William Perry Clements, Jr., had frequently quarreled with Justice, Bill Hobby, the Democrat from Houston and the lieutenant governor under both of Clements' nonconsecutive terms, lauded the judge: "Judge Justice dragged Texas into the 20th century. God bless him. He was very unpopular, but he was doing the right thing."