Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV 20150215 : vimarsana.com

CSPAN2 Book TV February 15, 2015

We have a board of directors consisting of judges who sit in three divisions of the Eastern District the ox andrea and north which division and we have attorneys to serve on the board as well. By tying the story of the Historical Society is a story of really some very key people that help society get started in 2006 and i would like to think the specific individuals. The first is u. S. District judge james spencer. He was the chief judge for the same district in 2006 and instrumental in helping our society get it started. There were several judges involved in the project that we will hear about today the society itself but there are a couple that deserve no. U. S. District judge Claude Hilton who sits in the Alexandria Division was sentimental and judge henry martin junior who sits in the Northern District in u. S. Bank Bank Bankruptcy judge just as the thais who retired in 2013 was a bankruptcy judge in richmond. Last but not least on the stage u. S. District judge henry hutson. Judge hutson is as many of you may know a long and distinguished public servant. He sat as a jurist on the Eastern District of virginia and a published author. Another person i have to note is common fight note is, in height. Hes sitting in a front row. Colin is distinguished trial lawyer who practices what all of us lawyers affection might call the rocket docket. Im not sure its always affectionate and everyone across the country knows that. Colin serves as the present of our society from 2006 until 2014 and we had term limits of common was their longest distinguished president before passing the torch to Steve Jackson in 2014. Last i would like to mention chief judge rebecca smith. Chief judge smith is a u. S. District court judge and shes a great supporter of the society. In terms of the very brief history before we turn the program over the society started in 2006. We had to incorporate the society. We also went to the process of getting our 501 c 3 status so we are taxexempt organization. Once that occurred the society once they got project to document the 200 plus turn a year plus the rich history of the United States Eastern District court for the district of virginia. We started that project working at the time with the graduate student at the college of william and mary and he was considering using the project as a way to get his thesis. What we quickly discovered was with 200 years of history and an amazing amount of cases and things to talk about we really needed to find someone with a passion for not only the history of the court but understand the dynamics of the history of virginia that were occurring when these cases were being tried. That is where i was very fortunate that ive reached out to one of my Law School Professors Professor William hamilton brightman asked him his or someone in virginia that can do the job in the first navy said it was john l. Peters. We were very fortunate in that 2010 john agreed to come on board with that what ill call her journey toward getting a published book and it was a journey not only because we had to form a society but we then worked with john and he did an amazing job and in less than two years he wrote her book. We then worked and i had no experience with publishers editors or archivists but now i can say that i do. We had to find all of those books folks to help us and ultimately our friend at d. C. Press wordsmith is here today. They agreed to publish our book and happily we now have a published book and its been a great project. With that being said i would like to now in judge hutsons case they secede the courtroom but i would love to give and talk about from marshall to moussaoui federal justice in the Eastern District of virginia. [applause] thank you very much andy. As you mentioned don peters is not the first author to capture the rich and at times controversial history of the United States District Courts in the Eastern District of virginia. Our court was one of the first courts in america and its one that has got a history with the tremendous amount of depth. Other authors tried to capture that history and found it to be an overwhelming project. So after a couple of years of frustration we turned to john peters. John is not only a lawyer, hes also an historian and a published author and the books from marshall to moussaoui the history of our court. Im sure youll find it exciting exciting. Its rich in history and have a lot of intrigue to it and its a darn good read. John tell us first knowing other people couldnt handle this project why did you decide to take on this Herculean Task wax left go you were just a glutton for punishment were you . It was no punishment at all. Its fair to say that i jumped at the opportunity to work on this project and i did it for a reason for the reason that any writer would want to do this book. Very simply put its a great story and thats what any writer looks for is a great story. If you are working with something of that nature is both an honor and not only a challenge but an honor to be able to deal with a history like this. So it was a fairly enjoyable experience. Now for those out here that enjoyed researching history tell us about how you got a handle on this huge volume of material in such a short period of time . Most of the books that ive been involved with have involved massive amounts of material and long histories of institutions that have lasted for a long time time. I will just mention hollywoods cemetery the history of richmond bar. All of those required you to work with massive amounts of material covering a long period of time and oftentimes the first subject matter. So you develop certain habits and certain approaches to handling that material that pay off in the long run. In this case first i will tell you i always work from a detailed chronological outline. While i am doing my research i pin everything on to a chronological outline. Just one sentence with a brief reference to the source of that information and what i ended up with in this case i think was 31 single pages singlespaced outline. You then use your outline, and you morph your outline i mean you morph your chronology into an outline. Thats where you determine where your chapter breaks are going to be how you are going to break down the material and organize it in such a way that it makes sense to the reader. You group things within subject matters. So the first decision i had have to make and it was a critical one i was charged with writing about the notable cases over 220 or period which gives rise to the question how do you define a notable case and where are you going to find it . I made an arbitrary decision very early on that a notable case would be a case that had been written up or occurred in the New York Times or the washington post. I did a search under every judges name and what i got was literally hundreds if not thousands of newspaper articles. I have this Wonderful Court librarian who took the names of the parties of the newspaper coverage and match those with reported legal opinions. I had the newspaper coverage and the actual formal opinions of the court that only the trial level but the appellate level. I eventually obtained copies of those opinions and would plug each one into the chronological outline and cited into law. I think i read over 610 and probably 300 cases finding my way into the book. It was experience frankly. He was having done this before and knowing how to approach it. The glory of it was that i ended up with both the newspaper coverage and the formal legal cases. Equally valuable because its only through the newspaper coverage that you find out the nicknames of the witnesses and the judges comments from the bench, and that sort of thing. You dont find that reporting weekly. John in addition to having Historical Perspective you practiced in that court for many years. Did that give you some unique insight to determine what cases are important and which ones are not . I had written about the courts in bits and pieces over long period of time perhaps going back as far as 40 years but i didnt have a comprehensive picture except for the critical cases the bird treason trials the segregation cases and the recent cases regarding the westinghouse uranium contracts and the pollution of the james river. I was aware of those cases but frankly it was my experiences as a lawyer that probably helped me more in reading and understanding the cases themselves. When i was in law school i really didnt understand why my professors were asking me to briefcases. Anybody who is a lawyer out there remembers the girl from law school. I always wondered why they asked me to do that and i didnt understand it. After i began working on this book i learned took me over 50 years but i learned why i was doing briefcases. That was one of the critical skills. I know one of your observations has been john that writing the history of u. S. District court of Eastern District of virginia you that was a very effective vehicle for talking about the history of jurisprudence in america. I think its more than that. I think theyre writing about the Eastern District of virginia or the history of any court is probably the most viable ways to teach virginian or American History. The reason for that is ultimately the most important issues in our culture are in our society find their way to court. I mean just think about it for a while. Abortion gun rights, health care, enemy combatants public corruption. We have had a healthy dose of that recently. But the important thing is and this is why experience with virginia and American History becomes the history of an institution but especially a court is only important if you place it in context. You have got to be able to tie those cases to events that were taking place in issues that were alive in the culture and society in which you are writing about. As an example if youre going to be writing about the admiralty cases in the Eastern District of virginia its absolutely essential that you know about the wars in europe and the activities of the french and the spanish and english fleets in the west indies and the emerging latin american republic. You cannot understand the cases in the Eastern District without that context. So youve got to be able to tell that story. Most people were viewing the history of 18th and 19th centuries tend to focus more on prominent members of the executive or legislative branch rather than the Judicial Branch. Why has the Judicial Branch been so overshadowed overshadowed by the other branches in the reporting of the history of virginia . I think in the history of virginia well number one unless you are talking about the federal courts its rare that the virginia cases, the state court cases have really had a great impact on society as a whole. The cases in the federal courts have but i think during the early days of the republic particularly when they were adopting the constitution promulgating the first judiciary act, people naturally look to the Founding Fathers who were essentially legislative people. Statesmen. They were not judges. Now we are getting close to a tie in with the Eastern District of virginia now because the one judge in American History who probably had the most impact in making the Judicial Branch of government equal with the executive and legislative branches was John Marshall. Do you want me to Start Talking about martial . [laughter] thats the most in convenient place to begin since he was the one that inspired so much of the basic principle of lot in america today. Lets Start Talking about John Marshall. He was on the u. S. Supreme court but he was also a trial judge was he not . Thats something that i realized the first time i was writing this book and its something i think most laymen and most lawyers realize today. John marshall was appointed the fourth chief justice in 1801 and he died in 1835. He was chief justice of the United States for those 34 years years. As they say it was probably an individual who in the history of this land have the most germanic impact on the powers of our federal government today. Thomas jefferson appointed date chief justice the United States we would be looking at a very different government today, very different federal government. But at the same time the thing that people dont realize is the entire time John Marshall sat on the Supreme Court is chief justice he also sat as a trial judge in the Eastern District of what was then the Circuit Court for the Eastern District of virginia. It was named the Circuit Court because every Supreme Court justice road circuit in those days you rode the circuit. Horses and inconvenience and all of that. When he was chief Justice Marshall typically spent two months a year in washington and 10 months a year either in virginia or North Carolina writing circuit as a trial judge. That meant he and panel jury is instructed juries sentence criminals rule the mission of evidence all the things trial justice is due today and in the course of that he wrote a number of opinions. You get a very different view of marshall as a trial judge from the view that you receive as what im about to refer to now is the great chief justice. He sat said on a number of very critical cases while being a judge in the Eastern District. Tell tells about the structure of the federal courts back in those days. In addition to the Supreme Court you have Circuit Courts that were trial courts but explained the dynamics of the two. There were three levels of courts under the first judiciary act. There were District Court which had very limited jurisdiction. One important aspect of their jurisdiction was the admiralty case. Then you have the Circuit Courts which were the primary federal trial courts. There was nothing between the Circuit Courts and the Supreme Court. There were no federal appeals courts in that day. We all know now the fourth Circuit Court of appeals in the eighth Circuit Court of appeals, there were no Circuit Court of appeals. There were no appeals courts and in the federal system. Cases went directly from the Circuit Courts to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court justice was assigned to every Circuit Court and sat on the Circuit Court with the district judge for that circuit. And so here you have the chief justice of the United States spending most of his time as a trial judge. Like today for Supreme Court justices pretty cushy to say the least. [laughter] is also accommodations and lifestyle of a Supreme Court justice in the age of John Marshall. First you have to understand during the first decade of the Supreme Court it was a very weak institution. I think there were some years during the first decade where the Supreme Court only rendered one opinion per year which today seems unimaginable. It was not totally clear at that point whether the Supreme Court had the power of judicial review of not only statutes but also federal statutes that state statutes. So it was recognized generally as an extremely weak institution institution. The justices when they met in washington and even that well all the justices during the first decade wrote separate opinions what are called sterry optim opinions. So you didnt have any unified opinion of the court that you could look to. Marshall when he became chief justice not only under his leadership, the court adopted a number of rulings that have affected our lives to this day in very dramatic fashions but during marshalls day the two months if they were in washington theyll Stay Together in the same rooming house and scarcely engaged in outside social activities. It was all introspective and they began to write collective opinions for the first time. In other words he would have an opinion of the United States Supreme Court not a halfdozen

© 2025 Vimarsana