January 30, 2003
Judge has Sense!
Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Margaret H. Marshall (whew, that's a mouthful!) has decided to pull out of the candidacy pool for the deanship of Harvard Law School in a move to save the Massachusetts judicial system. The judiciary and the legislature have been fighting an antagonistic battle: the legislators taketh away, and the judges taketh right back.
Since 1976, there have been six studies on the failures of the Massachusetts court system. The 1976 Blue Ribbon commission headed by Archibald Cox wrote
The administration of justice in Massachusetts stands on the brink of disaster. Its primary failings are delay and waste. The Commonwealth has neglected for decades the need for structural reorganization of its courts, for modern tools of efficient management, for sufficient judges and adequate facilities, and for the use of modern techniques in scheduling the flow of cases.... Individual Massachusetts judges and some teams of judges, especially the chief justices, have struggled to avert a crisis, but the causes of delay and inefficiency are built into the present statutes and methods of financing Massachusetts courts. Now the Commonwealth faces a stark but simple choice: either reorganize the judicial system or allow a breakdown of justice.
Chief Justice Marshall promised a revolution
last year. It's about time the state house wakes up and realizes that improving the judiciary (or just saving it) is valuable in itself, regardless of costs.