
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 24, 1990                   TAG: 9007240366
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

JUSTICE BRENNAN'S ENDURING VISION

A TOWERING figure in the history of American jurisprudence is leaving the U.S. Supreme Court. Speculation over his successor, and the significance of that choice, have all but overshadowed the importance of the departing justice's career.

Yet William Brennan's retirement at 84 signifies not merely a moment pregnant with political consequence, not merely an opportunity for President Bush to shift the conservative court further to the right, or to create a new court majority that would overturn the right to have an abortion.

Brennan's retirement marks the end of an era shaped in part by what he represented and achieved during 34 years on the court.

Appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower, Brennan from the start was a successful justice - which, on the nine-member Supreme Court, means he was a persuasive leader. He wrote numerous landmark decisions and helped shape many more.

Combining intellectual force with an endearing personality and unswerving commitment to his constitutional vision, he has long been, quietly, one of the most influential men in America. Even in recent years, when he was more often a dissenter, Brennan was able to capture close majorities on some important cases.

Brennan's opinions were often controversial, and deemed too liberal by some. But his purpose was always noble. From his seat on the court, he fought to uphold the notion that law, untempered by humanity, is coercion but not justice. He defended individual liberty and civil rights against their enemies. He articulated a consistent view of the Constitution across a range of cases but especially involving freedom of expression, the rights of individuals accused of crimes and the 14th Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection of the laws."

Brennan championed the underdog, but his influence was broadly beneficial:

Not only underrepresented voters were served by his 1962 opinion in Baker vs. Carr, which inaugurated the era of political reapportionment based on one person-one vote.

Not only the press benefited from the protection granted to political discourse by his 1964 opinion in New York Times vs. Sullivan, which set appropriate conditions for libel suits by public figures.

Not only minorities gained from Brennan's opinions affirming the need for school desegregation and striking down discrimination based on sex or race.

And not only welfare recipients were winners in a 1970 opinion that extended due process to administrative government by entitling welfare recipients to hearings before their benefits can be terminated.

The elegance and force of Brennan's vision will long endure, even if some of his legal opinions are modified or reversed. If they are altered, Brennan himself is not in a position to complain much.

"The genius of the Constitution," he once said in a speech, "rests not with any static meaning it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but in the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs."

Brennan was a promoter of judicial activism, which others might take up to pursue other ends and other political crusades. It's a risk of which he had to be aware over the years, and acutely so when he resigned last week.

by CNB