In Memoriam: Jack Weinstein

Jack B. Weinstein passed away on June 15 at his home in Great Neck, NY, at age 99. 

He was an ALI member for 50 years, elected in 1971. In 2006, ALI awarded Weinstein the John Minor Wisdom Award. The Wisdom Award is given from time to time in specific recognition of a member’s contributions to the work of the Institute. 

Weinstein earned his Bachelor of Laws from Columbia Law School and clerked for Justice Stanley Fuld of the New York State Court of Appeals (1949-1950). Prior to joining the bench, he was a professor at Columbia Law School from 1952 to 1967. 

He was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in 1967, serving as chief judge from 1980 to 1988. In 1993, Weinstein took senior status, but maintained a full docket of cases until he took inactive senior status in 2020, completing 53 years of service on the bench.  

Excerpted from The New York Times Obituary: 

He was the personification of the activist judge, defying decades of increasingly conservative influence in the federal judiciary. He said he would rather be reversed by an appellate court than risk compromising individual rights. He assailed and circumvented federal sentencing guidelines. He carried out his own war on the war on drugs, and as a senior judge refused to handle most drug prosecutions. He described himself in a 1993 memorandum to his colleagues as “a tired old judge who has temporarily filled his quota of remorselessness.” 

Read his full NYT obit here [subscription required].

Read his law.com story here [subscription required].