SIVACRACY.NET: Farewell Federal Judge Robert R. Merhige

Robert R. Merhige Jr., 86, a U.S. District Court judge died Feb. 18 at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond after undergoing open heart surgery. From his WaPo obituary:

"...He ordered the University of Virginia to admit women in 1970. He clarified the rights of pregnant women to keep their jobs. He presided over the trials of Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party members accused of injuring and killing members of the Communist Workers Party in Greensboro, N.C., in 1979.

"No decision made him more unpopular than his orders to integrate dozens of Virginia's school systems. He was widely considered the most hated man in Richmond in the early 1970s and required 24-hour protection by U.S. marshals. Segregationists threatened his family, spat in his face and shot his dog to death after tying its legs. Protesters held weekly parades outside his home. A guest cottage on his property, where his mother-in-law lived, was burned to the ground.

"He told the Richmond Times-Dispatch last year that he was still amazed, disappointed and angry at the public reaction to his rulings.

"I thought people would say, 'We don't like the little S.O.B., but he's following the law,' " he said. "That didn't happen."

Well, he was a hero and an inspiration to me, for whatever that is worth. And if there is an afterlife, I hope he and his poor dog are reunited.