Early Life

Non-Judicial Career

Desegregating Louisiana

D.C. Circuit

Video

D.C. Court of Appeals

J. Skelly Wright was appointed and confirmed to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy. Judge Wright would serve on the Court until his passing in 1988. Wright served as Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit from 1978 to 1981 and served on the Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals from 1981 to 1987. 

J. Skelly Wright helped create several doctrines in property and landlord-tenant law during his tenure on the D.C. Circuit

• Wright rules in Edwards v. Habib that landlords may not evict tenants who raise housing code violations to authorities in the development of the retaliatory eviction doctrine.

• Wright developed the theory of implied warranty of habitability in the case Javins v. First National Realty Corp.

• Wright authors the opinion in Williams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co. which speaks to the prohibition of exploiting the poor through contract unconscionability.

After transitioning from the Louisiana District Court to the D.C. Circuit Court Judge Wright continued to be known for ruling against unequal treatment. The opinion in Hobbs v. Hansen ruled that the District of Columbia's separation of students by testing and tracking is unequal to disadvantaged and poor students.

To the right: Famed portraitist Richard Avedon photographed Judge Wright as part of his 1976 series: The Family.

On March 30, 1981, United States President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. Reagan was seriously wounded, but eventually recovered. Three other members of the president’s traveling party were injured in the assassination attempt.

Hinckley was charged with three federal and five District of Columbia offenses. The prosecution wanted to introduce statements made by Hinckley after he asked for an attorney and documents seized from Hinckley while incarcerated. District Court Judge Parker ruled the evidence would be suppressed at trial for violating Hinckley’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment protections. 

With Judge Wright leading the panel the D.C. Circuit opinion provides a concise analysis of both Fourth and Fifth Amendment Protections in 1982. Following Miranda v Arizona, The Fifth Amendment requires that once a defendant asks for an attorney, all interrogation must cease. The Fourth Amendment protects “the right to freedom from arbitrary interference with privacy, must and can be recognized even in a detention context”. Therefore, under the Exclusionary Rule, illegally obtained evidence cannot be used to rebut a defendant’s defense. This opinion has been cited over 300 times to date. - See U.S. v. Hinckley, 672 F.2d 115.

While on the Court of Appeals Judge Wright continued to advance the academic discussion of legal theories through law review articles. Below is a sample of his works:

• J. Skelly Wright, Public School Desegregation: Legal Remedies for De Facto Segregation, 16 W. Rsrv. L. Rev. 478 (1965)

• Wright, J. S. (1982). Money and the Pollution of Politics: Is the First Amendment an Obstacle to Political Equality? Columbia Law Review, 82(4), 609–645. https://doi.org/10.2307/1122194 

Many speeches, articles, and books have addressed J. Skelly Wright's legacy. Selected works:

• A "Capacity for Outrage": The Judicial Odyssey of J. Skelly Wright, Arthur Selwyn Wright, Greenwood Press (1986)
• A Passion for Justice, Geoffrey R. Stone, 98 Yale Law Journal 213 (1988)
• Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board: The Second Battle of New Orleans, Chronicles of the Case and the Judge, James E. Wright III, 61 Loyola Law Review 135 (2015)
• Choosing Our Heroes: Skelly Wright and Atticus Finch, Carol S. Steiker, 61 Loyola Law Review 125 (2015)
• Four Louisiana Giants in the Law - Judge Robert A. Ainsworth, Jr. Memorial Lecture, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 48 Loyola Law Review 253 (2015)
• Greatness in a Lower Federal Court Judge: The Case of J. Skelly Wright, Richard H. Fallon, Jr., 61 Loyola Law Review 29 (2015)
• In Memoriam: J. Skelly Wright, William J. Brennan, Jr., Patricia M. Wald, Richard Parker, & Bill Monroe, 102 Harvard Law Review 361 (1988)
• In Memoriam: Judge J. Skelly Wright, John R. Brown, 57 George Washington Law Review 1029 (1989)
• J. Skelly Wright and the Limits of Legal Liberalism, Louis Michael Seidman, 61 Loyola Law Review 69 (2015)
• J. Skelly Wright's Democratic First Amendment, Johanna Kalb, 61 Loyola Law Review 107 (2015)
• J. Skelly Wright: A Clerk's Perspective of the Judge, Sally Katzen, 61 Loyola Law Review 15 (2015)
• J. Skelly Wright: the Career and Constitutional Approach of a Federal Judge. Patricia A. Behlar, LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses (1974)
• Judge J. Skelly Wright and the Racial Desegregation of Louisiana, Randall Kennedy, 61 Loyola Law Review 57 (2015)
• Judge J. Skelly Wright: Politics, Money, and Equality, Carol F. Lee, 61 Loyola Law Review 93 (2015)
• Law and Liberalism in the 1980s: The Rubin Lectures at Columbia University, Ed. Vincent Blasi, Columbia Univ. Press (1991)
• Remembering Skelly Wright, Abner J. Mikva, 98 Yale Law Journal 211 (1988)
• Slow Dance on the Killing Ground: The Willie Francis Case Revisited, Arthur S. Miller & Jeffrey H. Bowman, 32 DePaul Law Review 1 (1982)
• On Courts and Democracy: Selected Nonjudicial Writings of J. Skelly Wright, Edited by Arthur Selwyn Miller, Greenwood Press (1984)
• Tribute to Honorable J. Skelly Wright, William J. Brennan, Jr., 98 Yale Law Journal 207 (1988)
• Unlikely Heroes, Jack Bass, University of Alabama Press (1990)
• Video: Louisiana Legends: Judge J. Skelly Wright, LPB Digital Collection (1983)
• Video: With All Deliberate Speed, LPB Digital Collection (1983)