William Robinson III, president of the American Bar Association, was the Chattanooga Bar Association’s featured speaker at its 2012 Annual Law Day Celebration, held May 10 at the Sheraton Read House. Robinson spoke eloquently on the importance of having an adequately funded judiciary and urged attorneys to speak out against attempts to cut funds to the courts – something he said threatens the freedom people in the United States enjoy. Here is the full text of his speech, edited for readability.
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Law Day in this country has developed into a wonderful tradition, not only for the legal community, but also for communities all over this country as we think about what had been handed to us generation after generation for over 200 years.
[My wife], Joan, and I have had the privilege of traveling not only all over the United States but around the world on behalf of the legal profession, the American Bar Association and our judiciary. As we set out on this journey in August of last year, I was told my predecessor, Steve Zack, a Cuban of eloquent dimensions in his descriptions of everything, had a tendency to embellish a bit when describing things, so when he told me I would find in my travels outside this country that our judicial system is revered around the world, I thought there might be a bit of embellishment there.
But I am here to tell you after visiting many countries that the word ‘revered’ is perfectly appropriate for how our rule of law, our justice system, our judiciary and our legal profession are respected around the world.
Over 95 percent of the cases filed in this country are filed in state courts. That’s over 100,000,000 cases a year. More cases will be filed this year in Tennessee than in the entire federal court system. This is where justice is delivered, accessed and upheld, and it defines the quality of democracy here in Tennessee as in the other 49 states.
When the founders of our country set about writing our Constitution, historians tell us they did not have the money for roads and buildings, had to rent storefronts for meetings, and did not even have the money to pay the revolutionary soldiers who won our freedom. Most of them went back to their fields without ever having been paid for the great service they had provided to our county.
And yet wisely and with great vision, those who drafted our unique Constitution wrote in three equal branches of government – including our judiciary. That is how important they saw the judiciary to be in our classic system of checks and balances, which has served us well for over 200 years.
But last year in the United States, 42 states cut judicial funding, and there is not a state that funds its judicial system with more than 4.5 percent of its annual operating budget. I get those figures from the National Center for State Courts and [NCSC President] Mary McQueen, who monitors this from year to year.
Last year in New York, at the outset of the Gov. Cuomo administration, $170 million dollars in cuts were made in a state in which trial judges had not received even a cost of living increase since 1999. In California, $650 million dollars in cuts were made in the last four years, and if Gov. Brown’s current budget proposal goes through, there will be another $100 million in cuts.
Yesterday, Joan and I had the privilege of being in Bowling Green, Ky., celebrating Law Day with our chief justice. His portrait was unveiled for the nine years he spent serving the community there as a circuit judge before rising to the position of chief justice of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. While we celebrated, we were distressed by the fact that the budget for Kentucky for fiscal year 2013 includes another significant cut to its justice system - $25 million and a denial of the funding we need to keep our technology system operating at the level it needs to be at to handle a case load that keeps growing.
This story continues to worsen. Two weeks ago, it was Oregon, where 20 percent of the personnel in the court system were laid off. The week before, it was Los Angeles, where over 30 courtrooms closed. In the fall, it was the San Francisco Bay area, where 23 out of 39 courts were closed and 40 percent of courtroom personnel were laid off. It just keeps happening, and we must do something about it.
We are officers of the court. Everywhere I go where I have the privilege of speaking with lawyers, I remind us of that great dignity we have, that sacred privilege we have earned and the great responsibilities that go with it. I respectfully submit we have no more sacred responsibility than to stand up and speak out for our courts.
We can make a difference. A few years ago in Colorado, a former state legislator in the spring was successful in getting a proposal on the fall election ballot that would have limited all judgeships in the state to one four-year term. Imagine how difficult it would have been to operate a judicial system with that limitation. At the time, the Colorado Bar laughed it off, and then one of the major newspapers held a public opinion poll and found out, to the Bar’s shock and dismay, that over 70 percent of the people thought this was a good idea.
The Bar organized and then demonstrated what an organized Bar can do when it pours its skills of advocacy and its educated intellect into a cause worthy of a concerted effort. The Bar raised over a million dollars, enlisted every lawyer and for the next six months went out and spoke into every microphone they could find, whether it was at a pulpit, a Chamber meeting, a Rotary – they went everywhere. And when the fall election was held, the vote was the reverse. Over two-thirds of the population that voted defeated that proposal because the organized bar went out and educated the public at large.
That can be done in Kentucky; that can be done in Tennessee.
We’re living in an age where most people don’t understand civics. It hasn’t been taught, so how would it be understood? It doesn’t come in our DNA, so it’s something one generation must pass down to the next. Our polling shows us an embarrassingly large number of Americans can identify every judge on “American Idol” by first and last name, but cannot name a single judge on the United States Supreme Court – including the chief justice. And when asked to name the three branches of government, an embarrassingly large number of Americans respond, “Republican, Democrat and independent.”
It’s a sad state of affairs. People don’t understand what our courts do, and they don’t appreciate the critical role the courts play in representative Constitutional democracy, so the idea that the courts are underfunded doesn’t get their attention, if they even hear about it. But we have an opportunity to go out and educate the public at large that this is not a lawyer issue, this is America’s issue.
When I visited the Chamber of Commerce in D.C. last August when I become president, I would like to tell you it was my powers of persuasion and eloquence that won them over, but as soon as I went in to meet with them, they reacted without hesitation. They understand the courts are essential to the business community, for example. To operate efficiently and resolve disputes in a timely fashion, businesses need the certitude and the predictability case law, the rule of law and precedent provide.
We have been publishing op-eds, letters to the editor and articles in publications across the country but it’s not an easy issue about which to build momentum. This is for marathoners, not sprinters. This did not get this way overnight, and we’re not going to solve the problem overnight. But we can and will make a difference as officers of the court.
All of us in this room are well educated and blessed to be so, and we know civilizations have come and gone, and countries have come and gone. There is no guarantee our great country will last forever. As citizens and officers of the court, we must stand up and speak out for our courts. We must find opportunities to do so, and we must write to our legislators. We must not accept a continuation of this financially choking of our courts so they’re physically less and less able to meet the increasing demands placed upon them. We cannot expect our judges to do this; it is our privilege and responsibility to do it.
We have something precious here. This year, Joan and I visited all of the military service academies in the United States, and it has been a privilege to stand on the parade grounds and see thousands of young people who are special in many ways. They are willing to not only devote their lives and careers to the service of our country but if necessary also give their lives in the defense of freedom.
We know an independent, adequately funded, fair and impartial judiciary is the key to Constitutional democracy. And we know Constitutional democracy is the key to freedom. Freedom is what we’re talking about here. That’s how essential this issue is.
We in the American Bar Association look forward to working with all of you, and look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with you, because as lawyers, and as officers of the court, we have a sacred and privileged responsibility to do so. Thank you.