DULUTH, Minn., June 23 (UPI) -- Gerald W. Heaney, a federal appeals court judge who handed down landmark school desegregation decisions in a 40-year judicial career, has died.
Heaney was 92 and died in Duluth, Minn., The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Fellow Minnesotan and former Vice President Walter Mondale called Heaney "one of the most influential members of the bench."
"He issued a range of decisions trying to get at the evil of racial discrimination," Mondale said, "and often his circuit court dissents became majority opinions when they got up to the Supreme Court."
Heaney played a major role in eight desegregation cases, starting in 1967 with a ruling that prompted an Arkansas school district to adopt an integration plan.
For 18 years starting in 1981, Heaney wrote 27 opinions creating strategies for the integration of schools in St. Louis.
Heaney is survived by his wife Eleanor, two children, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, the Times reported.
