Finley, William T., Jr.

English

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UIC Law Review Volume 20 Issue 4 Article 14 Summer 1987 The Presentation of the Candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Laws, 20 J. Marshall L. Rev. 851 (1987) William T. Finley Jr. Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.uic.edu/lawreview  Part of the Legal Profession Commons Recommended Citation William T. Finley Jr., The Presentation of the Candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Laws, 20 J. Marshall L. Rev. 851 (1987) https://repository.law.uic.edu/lawreview/vol20/iss4/14 This Conference Proceeding is brought to you for free and open access by UIC Law Open Access Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in UIC Law Review by an authorized administrator of UIC Law Open Access Repository. For more information, please contact repository@jmls.edu. THE PRESENTATION OF THECANDIDATE FOR THE DEGREE OFDOCTOR OF LAWS, OCTOBER 25, 1986.WILLIAM T. FINLEY, JR., A.B., L.L.B. PIERSON, SEMMES AND FINLEY,WASHINGTON, D.C.; LAW CLERK TO JUSTICE BRENNAN, 1964 TERM.Dean Schrager, Mr. Maragos, members of the faculty of TheJohn Marshall Law School, distinguished guests and friends:We are summoned together to honor and celebrate an ex-traordinary man and jurist.With his family's roots still firmly embedded in County Ros-common, Ireland, William Joseph Brennan, Jr., was born in Newark,New Jersey, some eighty years ago, the second of eight children. Af-ter growing up in Newark and attending the university, JusticeBrennan's long legal career was launched in the midst of the GreatDepression. Graduating from law school in 1931, he returned toNewark to begin the practice of law. With the exception of wartimeservice, he was fully and most successfully engaged in private prac-tice from 1931 until 1949, when he was first appointed to the Bench.That appointment was to the New Jersey Superior Court, a trialcourt of general jurisdiction. His able service as a jurist was rapidlyrecognized and quickly rewarded with appointments in 1950 to theAppellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court and in 1952 tothe New Jersey Supreme Court. His judicial career in New Jerseywas marked not only by a notable display of the competence of aman most learned in the law, but by an avid concern for proper judi-cial administration. With singular success, he devoted his substan-tial energies to the task of reducing court backlogs and streamliningthe judicial process. Judicial administration, as has been observedbefore and as many in this room know, is not a race for the short-winded. Justice Brennan's devotion to the cause of judicial adminis-tration signalled his appreciation that there is truth to the adagethat "justice delayed is justice denied," and that the application ofthe law is not an intellectual exercise that takes place solely in theminds of jurists and in the pages of reported cases but, instead, is areal exercise that directly affects real people in vital ways.Thirty years ago this month, Justice Brennan came to The Su-preme Court of the United States. His service on that exalted tribu-nal has been characterized by a host of valuable contributions to theThe John Marshall Law Reviewlaw. None stands out more than his contribution to the fundamentalprecepts of individual liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of thepress, freedom of religion, the right to a fair trial, the political rightsof the individual. The hallmark cases are familiar to all legal schol-ars, and to many who have only a passing acquaintance with thelaw: Fay v. Noia, New York Times v. Sullivan, Baker v. Carr, Dom-browski v. Pfister, Katzenbach v. Morgan, and so on. The list islong.Justice Brennan's influence on the court, and on America,whether writing for the Court or in dissent, exceeds by dramaticbounds his vote on that body, which has been but one of nine. Thismay be due not only to a happy confluence of intellect and legallearning, but also to a friendly and buoyant spirit that reinforces theformer attributes. The combination of these characteristics fre-quently has enabled him to forge a consensus for his position fromwhat were initially disparate and even opposite viewpoints. Perhapsonly Court insiders can appreciate fully this influence, as only theycan witness, for example, a Brennan draft dissent pick up a secondvote, then a third, and finally wind up as the majority opinion.That he can have such an influence upon the Court is also theresult of an intellect that can think of legal problems in humanterms, and then persuasively and persistently advance a positionthat gives recognition to the principle that our Constitution andlaws are meant to be applied to human beings and not in the ab-stract. This quality as a devoted humanist gives a force to his legalreasoning that is difficult to deny and makes Justice Brennan a con-summate applicator of "those wise restraints that make men free."Dean Schrager, your candidate is obviously exceedingly wellqualified for the honor you are about to bestow upon him.f[Vol. 20:851

The Presentation of the Candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Laws, 20 J. Marshall L. Rev. 851 (1987)

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The Presentation of the Candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Laws, 20 J. Marshall L. Rev. 851 (1987)

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