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Judge David L. Bazelon
The
Jurist
Born in Wisconsin, David Bazelon grew up in Chicago and practiced
law there. In 1949, President Truman named him to the United States
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often described
as the country's most influential court, next to the Supreme Court.
At 40, he was the youngest judge ever appointed to that court. From
1962-1978 he served as chief judge, retiring in 1986 as a senior
judge.
As described in The New York Times' February 21, 1993 obituary,
"Judge Bazelon presided as the court was breaking ground on
criminal law and on issues as diverse as Presidential power and
nuclear power, broadcasting and the use of the powerful insecticide
DDT.... Rather than follow precedent set in a simpler time, he questioned
the status quo and sought to apply new findings in the social sciences
and psychiatry to issues the court faced."
Two of Judge Bazelon's landmark opinions from the appellate bench
established for the first time the right of a mental patient to
appropriate treatment. Rouse v. Cameron, 373 F.2d 451 (D.C.
Cir. 1966), recognized a right to appropriate treatment under the
relevant D.C. statute, and Lake v. Cameron, 364 F.2d 657
(D.C. Cir. 1967), held that this meant treatment in the least restrictive
alternative setting.
"I would never have imagined all that would follow. Since
most of the people involved were poor, powerless, and often incarcerated
for life in mental hospitals, they had neither the money nor the
credibility to focus attention on the legal issues they faced.
All that was to change with the entry of public interest attorneys.
We may debate the merits of increasing legal involvement in any
sector of society. But few doubt that recognition of mental patients'
legal rights has precipitated far-reaching changes in attitudes
and in the mental health system."
At the forefront of the new legal advocacy was the Mental Health
Law Project, formed by some of the lawyers and mental health professionals
who worked on early cases including those Judge Bazelon's court.
In 1993, MHLP celebrated its 20th anniversary by rededicating its
mission to Judge Bazelon and renaming itself in his honor.
An Interdisciplinary Thinker
"To be with David Bazelon was to find yourself in contact
with the universe," wrote George Herman, former host of CBS
News' Face the Nation, in a booklet of reminiscences. The Judge
had many and diverse friends and immersed himself in many emerging
areas at the intersection of science and public policy. As a member
of the National Institutes of Health Advisory Commission, he was
one of the key architects of early guidelines for genetic engineering.
He expressed his particular interest in psychiatry related to the
law as a lecturer in law and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University,
the University of Pennsylvania and the Menninger Clinic. He was
an active member of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, serving
as its president from 1967-1970, and was the only non-psychiatrist
included in the first U.S. Mission on Mental Health to the USSR
in 1967.
"Judge Bazelon has done more than any other single lawyer
to remind the legal profession of its obligation to keep pace with
extra-legal developments in the area of mental health," wrote
his good friend, Justice William Brennan, in the Bazelon Center's
commemorative booklet. "By choosing to rename itself after
Judge Bazelon," the organization "has accepted the challenge
of living up to the vitally important principles to which Judge
Bazelon devoted his extraordinary career."
"He the pebble, we the ripples on the pond."
The Judge was also noted for his law clerks - many now distinguished
leaders in the fields of jurisprudence, education, business and
government. One is Columbia Law Professor Peter L. Strauss, whose
reminiscence gave our booklet its title:
"'Arbiter' is simply inadequate to express the responsibility
the Judge felt, as any engaged public official would feel, for
the just functioning of the system of which he was a part....
Year after year, the Judge impressed [this style] on a small group
of beginning lawyers and future scholars who-because he was who
he was, and could attract who he could-would move on to become
as influential in American law as any set of law clerks in the
country; especially has that influence been felt respecting American
law affecting the person. He the pebble, we the ripples on the
pond. The intensity and truth of that experience is measured in
the ways we continue to propagate his style."
Among other former clerks are Yale Law Professor Robert Burt and
Harvard Law Professor Martha Minow, both current trustees
of the Bazelon Center.
The
Jurist