Charles Alan Wright

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other persons named Charles Wright, see Charles Wright (disambiguation).

Charles Alan Wright (1927 - 2000) was the foremost authority in the United States on constitutional law and federal procedure, and was the author of the treatise, Federal Practice and Procedure.

Born in Philadelphia in 1927, Wright earned his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University in 1947 and law degree from Yale in 1949. Wright taught at the University of Minnesota Law School from 1950 to 1955 and at the University of Texas School of Law from 1955 until his death in 2000.

He was elected a member of the American Law Institute at the age of 30, and served as its president for the last seven years of his life.

Professor Wright organized an effective boycott of the Faculty Club at the University of Texas at Austin when operators failed to live up to their promise that the club would not be racially segregated.

Wright was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.

Wright represented President Richard Nixon on constitutional issues growing out of the Watergate investigations by Congress and the special prosecutor. For a time he clearly appeared to be the President's lead lawyer, but then there was a shuffling of responsibilities, and he did not argue the case in the Supreme Court.

Wright was an active litigator before the U.S. Supreme Court. Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once described Wright as "a Colossus standing at the summit of our profession." The politically liberal Ginsburg also referred to Wright, a Republican, as "the quintessential friend."