Talk about Order in the Court, the newly appointed chief justice of the state's Supreme Court--Howard Brill--sounds like just what the court, the state, the governor, and all of us were looking for. And could only hope for at our most optimistic moments.
Howard Brill would succeed a good chief justice who's presided over much too long a time of delay and disarray on the state's highest court. And Howard Brill shows every sign of being not just a good chief justice but a great one. For he's a scholar and a gentleman and a student of the law--in just that ascending and undeviating order.
Professor Brill, a member of the faculty at the University of Arkansas, has a background in judicial ethics (he wrote the book) but his three great strengths are the law, the law, and the law. And nothing but the law. Not any extracurricular activities or pet projects that serve only to distract the court from its singular purpose, and what ought to be its single one: to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly in the light of the law--and of nothing else. Like personal brilliance, eccentricities, and the little clevernesses that only get in the way of that light.
Howard Brill's appointment as chief justice reflects well not only on the professor but on the governor who found and appointed him. Once again Asa Hutchinson's sober, meticulous judgment as a politician, lawyer and just person has shone.
Calvin Coolidge once said that the business of America is business. Just as the essence of the law in America should be the law.
To quote Eddie Walker, head of the Arkansas Bar Association, "a lot of people think in order to be effective in the legal community, you have to be abrasive, and that's simply not correct."
To hew to the law without giving or taking offense is simple civility. The notion that upholding the law requires a judge to be less than courteous--that's more than incorrect, it's just plain wrong--is the opposite of what a good judge should be. Let alone the great one Howard Brill now stands to be.
Editorial on 08/31/2015