Джеймс Скелли Райт: Жизнь и юридическое наследие

American judge

James Skelly Wright (January 14, 1911 – August 6, 1988) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Born on January 14, 1911, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Wright received a Bachelor of Philosophy in 1931 from Loyola University New Orleans and a Juris Doctor in 1934 from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. He was a high school teacher in New Orleans from 1932 to 1936. He was a lecturer at Loyola University New Orleans from 1936 to 1937. He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1937 to 1942 and again from 1945 to 1946. He was a United States Coast Guard lieutenant commander from 1942 to 1945. He was in private practice in Washington, D. C., from 1946 to 1948. Wright was the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1948 to 1949. He was faculty at the Loyola University of New Orleans College of Law from 1950 to 1962.

Wright was nominated by President John F. Kennedy on February 2, 1962, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated by Judge E. Barrett Prettyman. He was confirmed by the Senate on March 28, 1962, and received his commission on March 30, 1962. He assumed senior status on June 1, 1986. In Hobson v. Hansen (1967), Wright held that tracking in schools compromised the "right to equal educational opportunity" for the District's poor and disadvantaged. In Javins v. First National Realty Corp. (1970), Wright developed the theory of implied warranty of habitability in the field of lease law. In Edwards v. Habib (1969) and Robinson v. Diamond Housing Corp. (1972), Wright developed the retaliatory eviction doctrine, prohibiting landlords from evicting tenants who raised housing code violations to authorities. In New York Times Co. v. United States, Wright argued in dissent that the Nixon administration could not block the publication of the Pentagon Papers. The Supreme Court agreed with Wright, and overruled the D. C circuit

His service terminated on August 6, 1988, due to his death in the Westmoreland Hills neighborhood of Bethesda, Maryland. Wright is recognized for exerting a major influence on the American law of landlord tenant. Several of his decisions on the D. C. Circuit helped modernize landlord tenant jurisprudence by incorporating consumer protection principles long accepted in contract law. The J. Skelly Wright Professorship at Yale Law School is named in his honor.