By Sam Baker, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-861878.mp3
Dallas –
A memorial service will be held next week for retired U-S District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer. He died yesterday at age 76 of natural causes at a nursing home in San Marcos.
Buchmeyer spent nearly 30 years on the federal bench, but he's perhaps best remembered for rulings that led to the current 14-one voting system in Dallas. Also, for his handling of the 1985 lawsuit many say helped desegregate public housing.
Many called the judge courageous in both cases. The plaintiff's attorney in the housing suit agrees, but Mike Daniel said it really was a case of Buchmeyer doing his job.
Daniel: "He was doing his job, and his job as a federal judge is to apply laws, facts, in this case showing fairly egregious civil rights violations. He didn't back down from that job, he knew it was part of his job when he took it, and he did it very well, courageously.. but he also did it in a manner that attempted to limit any kind of ill effects that would come out of it either. He did it with an eye towards all the interests concerned."
The memorial service for Jerry Buchmeyer will be held October 2 at the Belo Mansion in Dallas.