U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice may have been one of the most courageous judges this state \— this nation \— has ever known. We are all better for his having served on the federal bench and we mourn his passing in Austin at 89.

Justice, an East Texas native who grew up in Athens, was the conscience of our state. He ordered all Texas schools to be desegregated in 1970 \— a few already had been \— and he would later rule that the children of illegal immigrants were entitled to an education.

Later still he would make the state of Texas completely change its prison system by ruling that prisons were overcrowded, understaffed and lacked proper medical care.

For all of this and other rulings, he became one of the most hated men in East Texas. We remember seeing a great many "Impeach Justice" signs throughout the state.

Fortunately, you cannot impeach a federal judge just because you happen to disagree with his rulings.

And, as time has proved, Justice's rulings were right and followed the constitutional law to the letter.

When he forced the schools to desegregate, it was because state officials were simply ignoring the law.

With William Wayne Justice behind the bench, the law could no longer be ignored. He followed the Constitution to the letter, not rewriting it, but enforcing it.

That steps on toes, as it surely did when Justice ordered integration. It seems as if people do not mind when their own "pet" Constitutional areas are enforced but they get a wee bit touchy when others are, such as no cruel and unusual punishment, or the right against self-incrimination, or equal protection under the law.

We have seen it written in several other publications that Justice turned the "old" Texas into the "new" Texas. We don't know about that. He did, however, ensure that, the Constitution of the United States was enforced in Texas. Before that, its rule was spotty at best.

Justice's passing will not be universally mourned. Usually, only those who are courageous in time of war get a hero's send-off. But he was a hero and he suffered mightily for what he did.

We honor that record and hope that his accomplishments are never forgotten. We hope he has set an example for others to take courageous stands in the future.