Died 16 October 1998 | ||
 | ||
Appointed by Governor Richard J. Hughes Full Name Joseph Howard Stamler Born November 19, 1911
Elizabeth, New Jersey ( 1911-11-19 ) Alma mater Harvard University
Cornell University Occupation Judge (1966–1973)
Attorney
Professor of Law Education Cornell University, Harvard University | ||
Joseph Howard Stamler (November 19, 1911 – October 16, 1998) was a New Jersey Superior Court Judge and professor at Rutgers University.
Contents
Career before the bench
Graduating from Cornell University in 1933 and Harvard Law School in 1935, Stamler started his law career in private practice.
Teaching law at Rutgers University, he also served on numerous legal boards. Stamler practised mainly in the Chancery and Federal courts and gave up a thriving 30-year-old practice when Gov. Richard J. Hughes named him to Superior Court.
His legal career was interrupted by service in the U.S. Navy during World War II. As a warrant officer, he skippered an air-sea rescue craft in the North Atlantic, receiving commendations for his service.
Significant cases
Stamler handled novel impression cases with no clear legal precedents to guide him, touching on social issues like religion in the classroom, airport noise and sex education. His most celebrated case involved the school board of Netcong, N.J., which had a policy providing for daily school readings of prayers published regularly in the Congressional Record, as delivered by Congressional chaplains at the start of the day.
Attendance at these readings was voluntary, and the board said they were inspirational remarks, rather than prayer in the schools, but Judge Stamler nevertheless ordered the practice stopped in 1970.
By discounting "beautiful prayers" as "remarks", the board tried to "peddle religion in a very cheap manner under an assumed name", he wrote, adding, "This type of subterfuge is degrading to all religions." The State Supreme Court unanimously agreed, and the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the school board's ultimate appeal.
Another Stamler opinion with national resonance came in an airport case in 1969, when he limited the hours for jet landings and takeoffs at Morristown Airport. Suit had been brought by four neighboring towns and six residents fed up with the engine noises of corporate jets at night and early in the morning.
The judge refused to allow the National Business Aircraft Association, the Air Transport Association and 12 large carriers to intervene in the case. "Perhaps the time has arrived," he wrote, "when the giants of industry will see the wisdom of slowing the cross-country speed of their important executives, and will take a close, concerned look at the little people of this country." They are the ones "who, by their purchases, contribute to industry's growth," he added in an order that soon echoed in courthouses elsewhere.
Life after the bench
After retiring to Connecticut, Judge Stamler developed a statewide program for youthful first offenders, some still in their pre-teens, to teach them respect for the law. It let them learn by playing the roles of lawyers, judges, jurors and other court figures in moot cases.
He also volunteered to help coordinate the state bar's court-visitation program for members of the public, an effort designed to improve general familiarity with the judicial system.
Personal life
Stamler's brother Nelson was a Union County Court Judge. He was married to Lillian Spitzer Stamler and, upon his death at Stony Creek, Connecticutt, in 1998, he left two sons and three grandchildren. His nephew, John H. Stamler, was a three-term Union County Prosecutor.