MR. JUSTICE WILLIAM JOHNSON, JURIST IN LIMINE: VIEWS ON JUDICIAL PRECEDENT

We have already become familiar with Johnson's awareness of the unconsciousness of mankind "of the shackles which superstition and tyranny had thrown around" it. He was also sensitive to the part which the law had played in preserving such a state of affairs. His keen and analytic mind was unwilling to accept as final what he knew was the illusive mirage of reality. The situation was a frustrating one-so much so that few minds today are prepared to accept the challenge which such a dynamic attitude entailed for him.

He began anticipating beyond the capacities of the minds of those around him. It increased his anguish that he was so quick to detect the aggressions of those in whose society he lived who were alert to attach to a scintilla of rationality the full force of their displaced hatred and prejudice. Few could understand him. Surely, Jefferson could but there was only one Jefferson.

Johnson was intellectually and emotionally almost alone.