Edward S. Marquez embraced a double life, impacting hundreds of lives as a humanitarian and as a low-key but outspoken state judge. Marquez made national headlines in 1994 when he convened a series of courts of inquiry and challenged the state of Texas to stop shortchanging his community in everything from money for highways to social services for hundreds of abused and emotionally traumatized children, the elderly, and mentally ill people. "They are the people who have been crucified on the cross of social and political indifference. Don't tell me I am being irresponsible," Marquez once said after being criticized in Austin for presiding over the rarely-used legal proceeding to shed light on what he considered injustices. The courts of inquiry, blocked at times by state officials, put El Paso on the political radar in Austin and eventually helped direct state money to habitually underfunded programs in El Paso.