Supreme Court of New Jersey

3Jn -tmoriam
HONORABLE
WILLIAM J. BRENNAN, JR.

Hughes Justice Complex

Trenton, New Jersey
November 18, 1997
HONORABLE WILLIAM J. BRENNAN, JR.
 IN MEMORIAM

focus on personal memories or professional assessment.

There is no dilemma here, however, for Justice Brennan's
judicial philosophy and his personality both expressed the
same fusion of two qualities; total integrity and embracing
openness. The Justice was committed to principle, and to
family and faith. For many persons of integrity, however,
the flip side of principle is rigidity and containment, encas­
ing them in a shell. Bg.t Justice Brennan had no shell. He
had a zest for life and for law. He was solid and wise, and
loving. And all those qualities came together, both in his
written legacy-those more than a thousand opinions-and in
the patented Brennan physical embrace.
The year I clerked for Justice Brennan was the year
that Marjorie, his wife of more than 50 years, died after a
long struggle. The Justice had for the years of her illness
reduced his life to two essentials: working at the Court and
taking care of her. Her loss seemed to shrink him further.
My co-clerks and I were afraid he would melt away. But we
did not know him well enough. One morning we came to
work. The Justice, who usually arrived well before all of us,
was not in. He had left a short note, though. He had
married, and he and Mary would be off on their honeymoon
for a few days. They were an incongruous pair, but a
perfect couple, and they spent many rewarding and spirited
years together.
Many accounts of Justice Brennan describe him as a
champion for liberty and equality. And he was that. Ai, one
of the most influential Justices of the century, he shaped
the law of free speech and due process and racial justice,
and so much more. But, in portraying the Justice as a
crusader, we risk reducing him to what is to the picture
that his critics drew-a political activist in judge's robes.
In truth, Justice Brennan's commitment to the Consti­
tution as the living guarantor of freedom and democracy
was a matter of deeply-felt, and profoundly reasoned, legal
principle. Justice Brennan's commitments were rooted in
law, not mere will or whim, and he read the law with the

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 IN EMORIAM

The ustice re ognized t at this was a aunting task.

And he never c aimed perfect nsight. But t s was t e
ma date of t e ud c al office, mandate e was n t ab ut
to shirk
his ater years on the be ch, when he was more
often in dissent, the Justice criticized what he called in the
Ca dozo lec res "arrogance cloaked as h mility" he e for
to c a an escape such as his o cal l e alism from the
dema s o ega judgmen T e Jus ice's own opinio s
sea che history and adition, b he fou d nar o his o i
cism ro und y unfa h l to the dema ds o law. He often
exp essed amazeme t hat he Cou t, in he name· of unreli
able sto ica a g e t, igno ed p eceden , struc ure, co
herence, and, he insigh s of expe e ce.
n my year, one dec sio of t at so t was Marsh v.
Chamber , in wh c he Cou t considered the p act ce of
offic a egislat ve p ayer and phe d t ove Jus ice re ­
na, 's dissent o y because e First Co gress ad hi ed a
c ap ain. Suc s mp em nded ess offe ded n o y t e
Justice's mora se se, but j st as mportan , is lawye
s s bilities.
We ga he oday before this Court, the New Jersey
Supreme Co , on wliich Justice Brennan se ed well and
proud y. The J stice first made his judicial mark in New
Jersey and helped b ing himself o the a tention of Presi
dent Eisenhower-through his work on judicial administra­
tion and procedura reform. Some have found this ironic, as
if such matters were. irre evant, to his later achievements.
But there is no rea discontinu ty here. From his days as a
lawyer and a judge in New Jersey to his amaz g career on
the United States Supreme C,ourt, Justice Brennan dis
p ayed the same zest for aw, the same ever-present union
of integrity and flexibility.
I ooked he o e day at t e ecord o J s ice B e ­
an's confi m io ear ngs n t e ited S tes Se a e.
Some pa ts o tha eco d seeme� o come fro a o he
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