Abe Lincoln and the Chief Justice

From C-Span

http://jonathanturley.org/2015/04/27/badass-parody-michigan-lawyer-and-adjunct-professor-sues-student-and-loses-then-sues-students-lawyer/

http://jonathanturley.org/2015/04/27/badass-parody-michigan-lawyer-and-adjunct-professor-sues-student-and-loses-then-sues-students-lawyer/

SANCTE PATER: N.Y. Judge Grants Legal Rights To 2 Research Chimp...

SANCTE PATER: N.Y. Judge Grants Legal Rights To 2 Research Chimp...: By Krishnadev Calamur ( NPR ) A New York judge has granted two research chimps the writ of habeas corpus — a move that allows them to chal...

http://jonathanturley.org/2015/04/15/tsa-screeners-fired-after-allegedly-picking-out-handsome-male-passengers-to-grope-for-sexual-pleasure/

http://jonathanturley.org/2015/04/15/tsa-screeners-fired-after-allegedly-picking-out-handsome-male-passengers-to-grope-for-sexual-pleasure/

DANIEL WEBSTER: THE MAN AND HIS TIME

I am totally sick of Daniel Webster.  He was the greatest lawyer of his age, the greatest orator of his age, and one of the most influential and powerful Senators and Statesmen in all of American history.  And I’m sick of him.

The late Professor Robert Remini’s massive biography of Webster comes in at a whopping 796 pages.  I can’t do any better in summarizing this massive tome than Kirkus Review did in its’ review of Remini’s  Daniel Webster: The Man and His Age (1997):

“This massive biography leaves no stone unturned in portraying a familiar but little studied antebellum figure, considered the young country’s best orator.  Veteran historian Remini maintains a delicate balance between Webster’s two personas: “the Godlike Daniel,” so called for his brilliant public addresses and eulogies of heroes of the American Revolution, and “Black Dan,” a tag referring not only to his dark appearance but to his ruthless politicking and ferocious temper.  Much of the study of Webster’s public life is organized around the famous speeches that defined and shaped his career, including his dual eulogy of presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and his congressional address appealing for early recognition of Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire, which positioned the congressman and senator for later appointments as secretary of state.  Black Dan is more evident in Remini’s description of the statesman’s private life.  Besides being alcoholic, Webster had the terrible misfortune of outliving four of his five children, launching three abortive and embarrassing attempts to gain the presidency, and suffering endless financial problems.  Remini quite deftly shows why he was known as “the Great Expounder and Defender of the Constitution,” depicting Webster as one of the earliest strict constuctionists, a man who felt that the Constitution was the defining American document and that the preservation of the Union took precedence over all other policy considerations.  Unfortunately, it is here that Webster’s political clout was eventually devalued, as he refused to combat the Fugitive Slave Act and chose to accept House Speaker Henry Clay’s Missouri Compromise, which perpetuated slavery and did nothing but guarantee the outbreak of war. . . . Though Remini’s obvious admiration for Webster may sometimes cloud his view, a more complete and engrossing biography could not be produced.”

Professor Robert V. Remini (1921-2013)

Professor Remini (1921-2013) is best known for his endless series of books about Andrew Jackson.  Remini tries to spice this up with all of “Black Dan’s” dalliances with women and reckless spending.  Webster liked women, and not just the two he was married to.   A female portrait painter, Sarah Goodridge, who was probably Webster’s mistress, painted a miniature of her bare breasts and gave it to Webster.  If Miss Goodridge was expecting a marriage proposal, she was disappointed, Webster instead married the daughter of a prominent New York family for her money.

 

Sarah Goodridge

"Beauty Revealed" self-portrait given to Daniel Webster by Sarah Goodridge

Although Webster made a literal fortune in legal fees during his career as a lawyer, he blew practically all of it.  Just about every major constitutional law case you can think of in the early nineteenth century, Webster was involved in it as a lawyer.  It was not unusual for Webster to make a speech on the floor of the Senate then descend to the basement of the capital building to address the Supreme Court.

Daniel Webster (1782-1852)

However much Professor Remini tried, however, a book consisting of one debate and speech after another can only be so interesting.  Now that I’ve finished, Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time, I’m thinking of using it a doorstop.  I recommend the book to anyone interesting in early American history and politics or the antebellum legal profession, however, unless you’re really interested in Webster I’d take it in small doses.

Jonathan Turley: A Desertion Trial in Search of A Defense

http://jonathanturley.org/2015/03/26/the-bergdahl-trial-a-desertion-trial-in-search-of-a-defense/

Rebellion In The Temple of Justice

Rebellion In the Temple of Justice: The Federal and State Courts in South Carolina During the War Between the States by Warren Moise is an interesting little book about the Bench and Bar of the State of South Carolina during "The Late Unpleasantness With the North" a.k.a. "The War Between the States," a.k.a. "The Civil War," or, as I like to call it, "The War Against Yankee Aggression."

It's really a short little book, because, the truth is, nothing much happened in the Confederate Courts. The Confederate States of America only existed for four short years.  As detailed in this book, many judicial districts simply shut down because all of the lawyers had gone to the army.  The book recounts that in some places in South Carolina not enough adult male white landowners ( the only people who could vote or sit on juries) could be found to empanel a jury.

Nevertheless, I found this little book to be fascinating.  The portrait of the antebellum legal profession in South Carolina was very interesting.  For the most part, the existing Federal Courts just became the Confederate Courts and all the Court same Court personnel kept right on working with no interruption.

The gentleman whose portrait is on the front of the book is United States District Court Judge A.G. McGrath who resigned from his post immediately upon receiving news that Abraham Lincoln had been elected President.  McGrath told the Grand Jurors that he would rather close "the temple of justice" forever than continue it under Northern Tyranny.  Not surprisingly, Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed McGrath as the new Confederate Judge and McGrath continued doing his job until being elected Governor of South Carolina in 1864.

This kind of thing is not everybody's cup of tea.  There are some tedious descriptions of long dead lawyers and judges, but over all I enjoyed this little book a lot.

JOSEPH HENRY LUMPKIN: GEORGIA'S FIRST CHIEF JUSTICE

As I read Paul DeForest Hicks' biography of Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin (University of Georgia Press, 2002), I couldn't help but think about the opening scroll of the movie Gone With the Wind:

"There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South.  Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow.  Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave.  Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind . . ."

The Georgia which Joseph Henry Lumpkin knew seems both familiar and remote.  Familiar in the sense that reference is made to familiar places, and I have practiced law before the institution which Lumpkin headed, the Supreme Court of Georgia.  As a student of history, I am familiar with the historical background to Lumpkin's legal career.  But the world of Lumpkin seems impossibly remote and strange to a twenty first century lawyer.

Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin (1799-1867)

Lumpkin (1799-1867) was already a prominent Georgia lawyer and politician when he was appointed to serve as one of the first three judges of the new Georgia Supreme Court in 1845.  There was much resistance in Georgia to the creation of an appellate court of any kind, and throughout the early years of the Court's existence it was always under the threat of being abolished by the General Assembly.

The resistance to any type of appellate court came out of Georgia's hostility to the early decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.  From the time of the American Revolution until the creation of the Supreme Court in 1845, Georgia had no appellate court and each Superior Court Judge reigned sovereign within his own circuit.  This, of course, created a mess in which the law was one thing in one Judicial Circuit and different in another according to the whim of each trial judge.

For years, lawyers in Georgia advocated the creation of a Supreme Court to correct legal errors from the local courts.  The hostility to the Federal Supreme Court, however, was such that it took until 1845 for a Supreme Court to finally be created.

Appointment to the new Supreme Court was more of a burden than an honor.  The Court had no permanent home but was required by statute to conduct hearings all over the State.  In the conditions of the mid nineteenth century, with travel by horseback over primitive roads, the Supreme Court judges' most difficult task was the constant travel to ride circuit over a huge state.

Lumpkin, as the oldest and most respected of the three judges, was chosen to serve as Presiding Judge from the creation of the Court.  The position of Chief Justice was not formally created until 1863 during the height of the Civil War.

Lumpkin was a devout Presbyterian.  Lumpkin was a "tea-totaller" and a promoter of the Temperance Movement.  As a young man, Lumpkin had been a liberal on the slavery issue who advocated gradual emancipation and re-colonization of blacks to Africa.  As he became older, Lumpkin hardened his opinions and became a staunch advocate of slavery and secession from the Union.

Lumpkin began his political career as a supporter of the Jacksonian populist Governor George M. Troup.  As a Troup supporter and advocate of States Rights, Lumpkin first came to prominence as a member of the Georgia Legislature and then as a  prominent lawyer.  His older brother, Wilson Lumpkin, served as Governor of Georgia.  Lumpkin and his wife, Callendar Grieves Lumpkin, had thirteen children.

In all, Lumpkin served on the Georgia Supreme Court for twenty two years.  He was the founder of the Law School at the University of Georgia, which was originally known as the Lumpkin Law School.  As a Judge, Lumpkin was progressive on economic and business issues, and conservative on social questions.  Reconciled to defeat, at the end of his life, Lumpkin urged his fellow Georgians to reconcile themselves to the Union as quickly as possible.

Lumpkin's life was one of long and distinguished service to his God, his family, and his native State.

http://jonathanturley.org/2015/02/15/500000-default-judgment-issued-against-defendant-over-barking-dog/

http://jonathanturley.org/2015/02/15/500000-default-judgment-issued-against-defendant-over-barking-dog/

http://jonathanturley.org/2015/02/14/honorable-carlton-w-reeves-gives-epic-lecture-from-the-bench-before-sentencing-three-mississippi-men-for-the-2011-lynching-of-a-black-man/

http://jonathanturley.org/2015/02/14/honorable-carlton-w-reeves-gives-epic-lecture-from-the-bench-before-sentencing-three-mississippi-men-for-the-2011-lynching-of-a-black-man/

What a Left Wing Nut Job Dictatorship Will Look Like

A county in New Mexico has tried to strip corporations of their rights under Federal and State law.  This is the kind of laws that we can expect in a far left wing dictatorship.  From the Voloch Conspiracy.

An Upside Down World of Justice

From Jonathan Turley