Margaret Marshall
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Margaret Hilary Marshall has been Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court since 1999.
Legal education and experience
Born in Newcastle, South Africa, Marshall attended the University of Witwatersrand and led student opposition to apartheid. In 1964, Justice Marshall moved to the United States, and attended Harvard and Yale.
From 1976 to 1989, she was an associate and a partner in private practice at the Boston law firm of Csaplar & Bok. From 1989 to 1992, she was a partner in the Boston law firm of Choate, Hall & Stewart. Also from 1991 to 1992, she was President of the Boston Bar Association, the oldest bar association in the United States. From 1992-1996, she was General Counsel to Harvard University.
Marshall was appointed to be an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1996 by Republican Governor William F. Weld. She was named as Chief Justice in September 1999 by Republican Governor Paul Cellucci, to begin her term on October 14, 1999. She is the second woman to serve on the Supreme Judicial Court, the oldest appellate court in the Western Hemisphere, and the first to serve as Chief Justice in its more than 300 year history.
Notable rulings
During her years on the bench, Chief Justice Margaret Marshall has written over 200 opinions. Marshall wrote the controversial decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that declared that the Massachusetts Constitution does not permit the state to deny citizens the right to same-sex marriage.
"State of the State Courts"
Justice Marshall spoke before the House of Delegates at the ABA annual meeting on February 16, 2009 about the status of the state courts. In her talk, Justice Marshall focused on the number and complexity of cases facing state courts, the status of state court funding, and what she sees as increased politicization of the state judiciary.
Relative to budget constraints, Justice Marshall pointed out New Hampshire's recent announcement that it will halt all civil and criminal jury trials for a month. In another example, Utah dismissed all of its in-house court reporters to make its budget.
Justice Marshall focused on an apparently increased politicization of the state courts, especially as it relates to increasing amounts of money spent in state judicial races. She referenced the decision in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White (2002), suggesting it loosened restriction on judicial campaign speech and "opened a Pandora's box of difficult issues." Marshall also invoked former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, calling expensive judicial elections "the greatest single threat to judicial independence."
Justice Marshall said: "...speak up for when your state courts are underfunded... know what is happening with your state courts systems, and advocate before your legislatures and governors for adequate court funding and merit-based judicial selection."[1]
External links
- Marshall's profile at Massachusetts government website
- Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Massachusetts Judicial Profiles
References
Portions of this article have been taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Copyright Notice can be found here.
