Malcolm Wilkey, Noted Judge, Dies at 90
Judge Malcolm R. Wilkey might be described as Zelig-like, but the events he was involved in over the years — and often his roles in them — were far more important than that.
One story he loved to tell involved the time he led the prosecution of George Parr, the longtime political boss of a huge expanse of South Texas. Mr. Parr had enlarged his place in history books in 1948 by ordering the “correction” in vote-counting that made Lyndon B. Johnson a senator by a plurality of 87 votes out of almost a million cast.
Was it a coincidence that in 1958 Mr. Johnson, by then the leader of the Senate, temporarily held up confirmation of Mr. Wilkey for a top Justice Department job? Maybe, maybe not.
Judge Wilkey, who was 90 when he died Aug. 15 in Santiago, Chile, had a long, varied career, writing many influential opinions as a federal appeals judge, but he never totally escaped the political trenches.
In 1992, Democrats strongly criticized his investigation of check-kiting in the House of Representatives bank. Representative Dave Nagle, Democrat of Iowa, said Judge Wilkey’s actions were not “the greatest trampling of the Constitution in the history of the House of Representatives, but it probably ranks in the top 10.”
Judge Wilkey’s death was confirmed by the Federal Judicial Center as well as former clerks of his. One of them, Steven S. Rosenthal, said the cause was complications of prostate cancer.
Mr. Rosenthal, who was a clerk for Judge Wilkey on the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, said that far from trampling the Constitution, Judge Wilkey revered it. His opinion ending the ability of one house of Congress to veto a regulatory action is frequently cited as path-breaking.
Judge Wilkey may not have been a household name, but he kept popping up in interesting times and places. He led the Justice Department team trying to integrate schools in Little Rock, Ark.; led a commission in the first Bush administration to reform government ethics; and helped Alaska set up a new court system when it became a state.
As a judge, his mainly conservative opinions drew note, even when they were for the losing side. In his dissent from an opinion ordering President Richard M. Nixon to turn over secret recordings to a federal court, he argued that a president has an “absolute” privilege to refuse the other two branches of government. He said in his memoir that he had had to put aside the residue of his Southern upbringing to fight Gov. Orval E. Faubus over the governor’s opposition to integration of Little Rock schools at the beginning of the 1958 school year. The New York Times reported that Mr. Wilkey seemed “almost eager for the encounter.”
Mr. Wilkey told The Times: “All of those people who contend that the Supreme Court decision is not the law of the land leave unanswered the question: ‘What is the law of the land, and who is to determine it?’ ”
He was ambassador to Uruguay from 1985 to 1990. Several times, he was mentioned in published reports as being under consideration for appointment to the Supreme Court.
Read entire article at NYT
One story he loved to tell involved the time he led the prosecution of George Parr, the longtime political boss of a huge expanse of South Texas. Mr. Parr had enlarged his place in history books in 1948 by ordering the “correction” in vote-counting that made Lyndon B. Johnson a senator by a plurality of 87 votes out of almost a million cast.
Was it a coincidence that in 1958 Mr. Johnson, by then the leader of the Senate, temporarily held up confirmation of Mr. Wilkey for a top Justice Department job? Maybe, maybe not.
Judge Wilkey, who was 90 when he died Aug. 15 in Santiago, Chile, had a long, varied career, writing many influential opinions as a federal appeals judge, but he never totally escaped the political trenches.
In 1992, Democrats strongly criticized his investigation of check-kiting in the House of Representatives bank. Representative Dave Nagle, Democrat of Iowa, said Judge Wilkey’s actions were not “the greatest trampling of the Constitution in the history of the House of Representatives, but it probably ranks in the top 10.”
Judge Wilkey’s death was confirmed by the Federal Judicial Center as well as former clerks of his. One of them, Steven S. Rosenthal, said the cause was complications of prostate cancer.
Mr. Rosenthal, who was a clerk for Judge Wilkey on the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, said that far from trampling the Constitution, Judge Wilkey revered it. His opinion ending the ability of one house of Congress to veto a regulatory action is frequently cited as path-breaking.
Judge Wilkey may not have been a household name, but he kept popping up in interesting times and places. He led the Justice Department team trying to integrate schools in Little Rock, Ark.; led a commission in the first Bush administration to reform government ethics; and helped Alaska set up a new court system when it became a state.
As a judge, his mainly conservative opinions drew note, even when they were for the losing side. In his dissent from an opinion ordering President Richard M. Nixon to turn over secret recordings to a federal court, he argued that a president has an “absolute” privilege to refuse the other two branches of government. He said in his memoir that he had had to put aside the residue of his Southern upbringing to fight Gov. Orval E. Faubus over the governor’s opposition to integration of Little Rock schools at the beginning of the 1958 school year. The New York Times reported that Mr. Wilkey seemed “almost eager for the encounter.”
Mr. Wilkey told The Times: “All of those people who contend that the Supreme Court decision is not the law of the land leave unanswered the question: ‘What is the law of the land, and who is to determine it?’ ”
He was ambassador to Uruguay from 1985 to 1990. Several times, he was mentioned in published reports as being under consideration for appointment to the Supreme Court.