Joseph Stamler
Joseph Howard Stamler (November 19, 1911 – October 16, 1998) was a New Jersey Judge who decided an early school prayer case in New Jersey in the 1960s. He was the brother of Nelson Stamler, who won fame as a racket-busting prosecutor and later as a legislator and Judge. He was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the son of Samuel Stamler and Jeanette Frank Stamler, both Austrian immigrants. He was a 1933 graduate of Cornell University and a 1935 graduate of Harvard Law School. He served in the U.S. Navy in World War II. Stamler was a Law Professor at Rutgers Law School. Governor Richard J. Hughes nominated him to serve as a Judge of the Chancery Division in Morris County in 1966. He served as a Judge until 1973. His most famous case came in 1970, when he ordered the Netcong Board of Education to end its practice of reading prayers in local schools. He said school officials sought to peddle religion in a very cheap manner under an assumed name” and that this “type of subterfuge is degrading to all religions. [1] The New Jersey Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Neptune’s appeals.[2]
He was married to Lillian Spitzer Stamler and had two sons and four grandchildren. His nephew, John H. Stamler, was a three-term Union County Prosecutor.
References
- ↑ "Sorry State of Affairs". The Pocono Record. Sunbury Daily Item. 24 March 1970.
- ↑ Saxon, Wolfgang (23 October 1998). "Joseph Howard Stamler, 86, Influential New Jersey Judge". New York Times. Retrieved 30 November 2014.