James H. Coleman, Jr., the son of a sharecropper who grew up under Jim Crow laws in Virginia and became the first Black associate justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, died on August 2. He was 91.
Coleman spent his nearly nine years on the top court as an unwavering advocate of social and racial justice. He wrote a Supreme Court opinion that struck down exclusions of racial minorities from serving on juries. He wrote over 3,000 opinions during his nearly four decades as a judge. He led courts to adopt the principle of New Jersey Federalism, which set the U.S. Constitution as the “floor below which an individual’s rights cannot fall and our State Constitution as a ceiling for individual rights.”
Coleman was also unafraid to dissent. He was the lone justice to oppose striking down a key component of New Jersey’s Rape Shield Law.
“He understood the historic and inspiring nature of his appointment, but he never acted as if he were a giant of the law, which he most surely was,” said former Justice Peter Verniero. “Instead, he was down to earth, a mentor to his law clerks and a role model for the rest of us.”
Coleman joined the New Jersey Department of Labor and Industry during the final two years of Gov. Robert Meyner’s administration. Gov. Richard Hughes nominated him to serve as a judge in the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Court.
In 1973, Gov. William Cahill nominated him to serve as a Union Count Court judge. He was a Superior Court Judge from 1978 to 1980 and as a state appellate court judge from 1981 to 1994.
Gov. Christine Todd Whitman nominated Coleman to serve as an associate justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1994. He succeeded Justice Robert Clifford.
Whitman had defeated Democratic Gov. Jim Florio in 1993, who had no Supreme Court picks during his four years as governor. Her political career was on a national trajectory during her first year as governor, made history in 1994 by nominating the first black Supreme Court Justice in New Jersey history.
Whitman was politically strategic with the Coleman nominee. Clifford was a Democrat and while Whitman could have shifted the partisan balance of the New Jersey Supreme Court from a 4-3 Democratic majority, she knew that Wilentz would reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 in 1999.
Had Whitman named a Republican to replace Coleman, she might have been boxed in to either elevate Marie Garibaldi or Gary Stein to Chief Justice, name another Democrat to the post, or breaking the tradition of partisan balance.
She might have been able to pull that off. Republicans had a 24-16 majority in the State Senate at the time, and seven of the GOP senators still there had voted against Wilentz’s confirmation eight years earlier.
Picking Coleman, a moderate Democrat who had never really been involved in partisan politics, she preserved her option to nominate a Republican as Chief Justice.
Verniero said he first met Coleman when he was serving as Whitman’s chief counsel.
“My respect for this towering leader of the law only increased when I joined Justice Coleman on the Court and saw up close his enormous abilities and the depth of his character,” said Verniero. “He was one of the few justices to have served on every level of the Superior Court before joining our state’s highest court. He was a person of strong intellect with an unshakable sense of fairness and unyielding integrity. Those qualities, plus his unparalleled judicial experience, made him an instant leader on the Supreme Court.”
Gov. Donald DiFrancesco nominated him to a tenured term in 2001. Coleman had sworn in DiFrancesco as governor after Whitman resigned to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
He retired in 2003 and was replaced by Justice John Wallace.
After leaving the court, Coleman served on the Joint Legislative Commission Ethical Standards, and joined the law firm of Porzio Bromberg & Newman.
A graduate of Virginia State University and George Washington University Law School, Coleman served in the U.S. Army Reserve and practiced law in Union County in the 1960s.
Coleman is survived by his wife, Sophia, two children and four grandchildren.
A wake for Justice Coleman will be held on Friday, August 23 from 6-8 PM from Martin’s Funeral Home in Montclair. Entombent and Last Rites are set for 10 AM on August 24 at Saint Stephen’s Cemetary & Chapel at Short Hills in Millburn.