The Honorable Matthew J. Perry, Jr. helped win a number of monumental cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, and he secured the release of over 7,000 persons who were arrested for participating in civil rights demonstrations.
The U.S. Supreme Court's 1963 decision in Edward v. South Carolina, which Perry argued, established the right of demonstrators to use public streets for protests and has been cited in more than 70 U.S Supreme Court decisions.
In 1975 he was appointed to the U.S. Court of Military Appeals. Four years later he was selected U.S. District Judge for the District of South Carolina.
In honor of his outstanding contributions to South Carolina and to the nation, the Matthew Perry Federal Court House opened April 2004 in downtown Columbia.
