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Saturday, January 27, 2007

Remembering Judge Richard Arnold

I was blessed, after law school, with the opportunity to work for a brilliant and decent man, Judge Richard S. Arnold of the United States Court of Appeals.  Judge Arnold died a little over two years ago, on September 23, 2004.  (Here is a blog post I did, right after learning about his death.)

The University of Arkansas-Little Rock's Bowen School of Law now hosts an annual Arnold Lecture, honoring Judge Arnold and his brother, Judge Morris S. Arnold.  Last night, Justice Thomas -- who came to know Judge Arnold well, in connection with his assignment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit -- gave that Arnold lecture.  Here is a report.

Here's a bit from a post I did, the day after Judge Arnold's death:

The Judge was humane, wise, and devout. . . .  There are few like him. In terms of the law, he was an old-school liberal who admired both Justice Black and Justice Brennan, and a textualist with originalist leanings who loved and respected Justice Scalia; he was a "strict separationist" who really did believe that such a legal regime was essential to preserving religious freedom; he was passionately committed to fairness and to the dignity and rights of litigants and defendants; he knew that the law should be just, yet knew also that judges cannot right every wrong. His writing was at the same time elegant and simple, clear and memorable. . . .

Judge Arnold was a great judge, and a deeply good man.  Thanks to the Bowen School of Law, and to Justice Thomas, for honoring him.

Posted by Rick Garnett on January 27, 2007 at 10:53 AM in Rick Garnett | Permalink

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Comments

On the Harvard Law Review, Richard was generally acknowledged as the all-around perfect legal scholar. He was persuasive but not overbearing, logical but willing to listen to alternate logics, liberal but not too far from centrist. His enduring legacy as a judge, which should be mentioned in any obituary about him, was his decision that unreported judicial opinions violate the Constitution. Especially in these days of ultra-cheap internet archives, there is no warrant for sealing or otherwise hiding judicial opinions, even if the plaintiff, defendant, and judge all want to hide them. As Richard said, these judicial reports are public documents, not private memoranda. They contribute to the increasing refinement over time of the common law.
The common law is a public resource, period.

Posted by: Anthony D'Amato | Jan 28, 2007 4:45:51 PM

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