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President's Message

ImageThe ACTL has a strong history of standing up for the independence of the judiciary, as part of the fulfillment of our mandate of "maintaining and improving ...the administration of justice."

Very early in my tenure as President of the ACTL, I have had occasion to hear the public comments of two state chief justices on two consecutive nights, and to speak privately with a third state chief justice the next night, on the subject of the administration of justice.  The thrust of their comments, as described below, is that attacks on the independence of the judiciary can come in many forms, including budget cuts so deep that the administration of justice is imperiled.
 
Here are the circumstances, and each chief's comments:

On the evening before I left Boston for visits to two states in the southwest, Massachusetts Chief Justice Margaret Marshall delivered her annual “state of the state courts” address.  Mincing no words, the Chief proclaimed that the Commonwealth’s justice system is in or perilously near crisis mode. Having already suffered disproportionate budget cuts in the last cycle, it now faces the threat of significant additional cuts in a mid-cycle adjustment necessitated by a larger than expected state deficit.  (According to research done early in 2009 for a Boston Bar Association study regarding the budget for the state judiciary, the most recent budget cuts had resulted in probation officers being pulled out of many schools, child and elder abuse and custody hearings being delayed by a factor of several times, and money for translators and court reporters being slashed to the bone.)  With more significant cuts, the Chief bluntly noted, the justice system would simply be unable to deliver its one key “product,” to wit: justice.

These thoughts were still weighing heavy on my mind the next night at the University of Denver, where I attended the third annual Transparent Courthouse Award ceremony, sponsored by the Institute for the Advancement of American Legal Studies.  The award recipient, Chief Justice John Broderick of New Hampshire, is a Fellow of the College and a new member of the College’s Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice.  In his usual humble, soft spoken way, speaking entirely extemporaneously the Chief declared that the civil justice system in our state courts is at the tipping point.  Forced by budgetary constraints in his own state to shut down civil jury trials for a full month in one busy session, and facing the likelihood of limiting jury trials to four days a week in all or many sessions, he questioned whether the civil justice system in his state could continue to deliver on its obligation to the citizens of New Hampshire: to provide prompt and efficient access to justice. 

The next evening I spoke privately at dinner with a third state Supreme Court Justice, whose name I shall not include since his comments were not in a public forum.  When I shared with him the sobering words of his counterparts, he provided me with an insight that I might otherwise have missed:  At least ninety percent of most state court budgets is comprised of personnel costs.   Therefore, if a court system is forced to cut dollars, it is cutting staff, and if it is cutting staff, it is cutting services.

The ACTL devoted substantial efforts in recent years to supporting well-deserved pay raises for federal judges, which, unfortunately, have yet to come to pass.  We are equally committed to the independence of our state and province judges, and to the administration of justice in state and province courts.  Whether we act at the national level, or through our state and province committees as may be necessary in issues involving their courts, it is our aim to support the effort of independent judges in dispensing justice in a fair and expedient manner.  If you are a Fellow, please log in and go to my blog below to share your thoughts on what role the ACTL can, and should, play with regard to those jurisdictions that may be  in judicial budget crises.

President's Blog

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Highlights
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