Obituaries : J. Skelly Wright; Renowned Liberal Appellate Judge

Retired federal appeals court Judge J. Skelly Wright, who acquired a reputation as one of America’s more liberal jurists during 25 years on what is often called the second most powerful bench in the nation, has died of cancer at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 77.

As a member of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Wright, who died Saturday, wrote opinions that required Washington schools to end unofficial segregation, ruled that Japanese-Americans could sue the federal government for compensation for property lost during internment and allowed the Washington Post to publish the Pentagon Papers.

He retired last year.

His 1967 “Wright decree” was one of the first in the United States to use a court’s authority to dismantle discrimination against poor black students in a northern school system. He ordered busing of students from overcrowded black schools to predominantly white schools in Washington’s northwest section, where enrollments were under capacity.

The decision was said to be the most important involving schools since the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., case, which ended legal segregation of students.

Wright had already made waves as a civil rights advocate while a U.S. district judge in his native New Orleans. He ordered integration of the schools there in 1960.

President John F. Kennedy appointed Wright in 1963 to the appellate court in Washington, a post that derives much of its power from the opportunity to decide many cases involving the federal government.

In 1971, for example, he rejected the government’s contention that publication of the Pentagon Papers should be blocked on national security grounds. The papers were secret documents revealing the history of American policy regarding the nation’s involvement in Vietnam.

Another landmark ruling on freedom of the press was a 1987 opinion, written by Wright and Judge Kenneth W. Starr, that said a publication’s history of “hard-hitting investigative stories” does not show that it acts with actual malice toward public figures. The decision vindicated the Washington Post in a libel suit brought by William Tavoulareas, former president of Mobil Oil.

Broad Power for EPA

In 1976, in a case that challenged the government’s right to regulate the amount of lead in gasoline, Wright wrote that the Environmental Protection Agency had wide-ranging authority to control possible public health hazards.

In 1985, in a ruling that had profound implications for cable-television programming, Wright wrote that the Federal Communications Commission cannot be required to transmit the signals of all local broadcast television stations.

And in 1986, he declared that the statute of limitations should not bar Japanese-Americans from making claims against the government for losses incurred by their internment during World War II.

The House late last week gave final approval and sent to President Reagan legislation expressing a national apology and authorizing tax-free payments of $20,000 each to Japanese-Americans who suffered wartime imprisonment.

Wright was considered one of the leading advocates of activist courts. But in 1987 he said he thought “some of us (judges) have gotten carried away” with wielding power. He proposed this solution: Courts should continue to actively defend the rights of disadvantaged minorities, but otherwise should start showing more restraint.

Wright is survived by his wife of 43 years, Helen, a son, a brother and three sisters.