Justice James H. Coleman, Jr., the first Black Justice to sit on the Supreme Court of New Jersey, died on August 5 at age 91. This post is very late, but it is necessary to recognize Justice Coleman.
Unlike many Justices, Justice Coleman worked his way up the judicial ladder before his appointment as a Justice by Governor Whitman in 1994. After working in private practice in Union County from 1960 to 1970, Governor Hughes nominated him to become a Judge of the Workers Compensation Court. In 1973, Governor Cahill nominated Judge Coleman to the Union County Court bench. Governor Byrne appointed Judge Coleman to the Superior Court bench in 1978, and Chief Justice Wilentz elevated Judge Coleman to the Appellate Division in 1981. Judge Coleman was the first Black jurist to sit in the Appellate Division.
In 1994, Governor Whitman nominated Judge Coleman to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by Justice Clifford. The Senate confirmed him for that position unanimously. Governor DiFrancesco nominated Justice Coleman for tenure in 2001, which the Senate endorsed. Thus, Governors of both parties, and the Senate, recognized him as someone who had acted with judgment and balance in his lengthy judicial career to that point, and as someone whose intellect perfectly suited him to service on the Supreme Court. In my own experience, he was a gentleman on the bench, dealing appropriately and temperately with counsel at all times.
Justice Coleman authored several thousand opinions during his judicial service. On the Supreme Court, perhaps his most often cited opinion was in Brill v. Guardian Life Ins. Co., 142 N.J. 520 (1995), a unanimous, landmark decision that undid the summary judgment regime of Judson v. Peoples Bank & Trust Co. of Westfield, 17 N.J. 67 (1954), and replaced it with principles that paralleled those of the federal courts in making summary judgment easier to obtain in proper cases. Pretty much every New Jersey lawyer, and many laypeople know about Brill, but not everyone recalls who authored it.
Justice Coleman’s output of important rulings extended far beyond Brill, however. In no particular order, a small selection of other such opinions in the civil context alone included Flagg v. Essex County Prosecutor, 171 N.J. 561 (2002), which set forth the definition of “abuse of discretion” that continues to be cited with approval today, Hammock by Hammock v. Hoffmann-LaRoche, 142 N.J. 356 (1995), which recognized a strong presumption in favor of public access to many types of court records, Keddie v. Rutgers, 148 N.J. 36 (1997), a major opinion under the Open Public Records Act, McNeil v. Legislative Apportionment Comm’n, 177 N.J. 364 (2003), which held that enforcing the political boundary of the New Jersey Constitution in drawing election districts violated the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution and the doctrine of “one person, one vote,” significant tort cases (for example, Clohesy v. Food Service Supermarkets, 149 N.J. 496 (1997), and Fleuhr v. City of Cape May, 159 N.J. 352 (1999)), and a number of opinions regarding attorneys’ fees, such as Saffer v. Willoughby, 143 N.J. 256 (1996), In re Niles Trust, 176 N.J. 282 (2003), and North Bergen Rex Transp. v. Trailer Leasing Co., 158 N.J. 561 (1999).
Justice Coleman retired in 2003. He was replaced on the Court by Justice Wallace. He then joined Porzio Bromberg & Newman.
Justice Coleman rose from humble beginnings to the top of the legal profession in New Jersey. After graduating from Virginia State University in 1956 and Howard University Law School in 1959, Justice Coleman moved to New Jersey but found many of the same attitudes toward Black people here as he faced in the South, where he came from. He got a clerkship but, according to an oral history interview, no firm would hire him and no bank would lend him money to open his own law office. His is a classic American success story that should always be remembered.
