Tribute to Judge Wapner

Toledo Blade: In 1989, two out of three people the Washington Post surveyed couldn’t name a single justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. But a majority knew who Judge Wapner was.

Joseph A. Wapner, who died Sunday, had been a real-life judge. The country, however, knew him as a TV judge – the TV judge. On “The People’s Court,” Mr. Wapner would cut through irrelevancies to get at the key facts of the case before him.

Mr. Wapner, together with the team that hired him and the show’s other regulars, had created a form of reality television.

Judge Wapner was also a just jurist. For example, when one plaintiff told the judge to stop talking about the noisy infant he’d brought along, and later accused the judge of fighting with him, Mr. Wapner threatened to expel him from the courtroom for his disrespect. When that man won his case, and $353.25, the judge said: “I only wish that I could take off something for your obnoxious behavior, but I can’t do that. I decide cases in accordance with law and fact, and not on personality.”

That’s a fair judge, a good role model, and a good model of judicial restraint.