Margaret H. Marshall, the first female Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts gave the fifteenth annual Hugo L. Black Lecture on Freedom of Expression last Tuesday. Marshall spoke about whether the First Amendment of the American Constitution undermined judicial independence.
“An American judge’s highest responsibility is to uphold the laws set out by the Constitution,” Marshall said.
As a long-established presence in the judicial arena, Marshall has plenty of experience from which to draw her opinions. She became the first woman in the state of Massachusetts to hold the position of chief justice in 1999 and was also one of six appointed associate justices to the Supreme Judicial Court in 1996.
Marshall contextualized her early encounters with the law by describing her childhood in South Africa during the years of apartheid.
“It was a time when the law and the application of law was a perversion of justice,” she said. Marshall cited extreme censorship by the South African government. Television was forbidden and foreign newspapers such as The London Times would be delivered with gaping holes where articles had been cut out.
“It is a prized American privilege to speak one’s mind, although not always done in perfect good taste,” Marshall said, quoting the late Justice Hugo Black, for whom the lecture is named.
Marshall has become increasingly wary of the public’s ability to critique court happenings. She said that she feels that people have a right to criticize judges, but that more and more citizens are manipulating judges by giving them campaign money. Marshall said that she also believes that appointed justices tend to be politically biased.
“Campaign money now influences court decisions, as if justice were for sale,” Marshall said. “Nevertheless, I am an optimist. In the end, Americans obey court decisions because we continue to trust judges as a whole to perform their tasks objectively and faithfully.”
The media also plays an important role in affecting judicial decision-making.
“In no other country in the world may citizens criticize the judiciary as strongly, as harshly as we do,” Marshall said. “The media broadcasts information but also contributes to a national lust for courtroom drama.”
She proposed two steps toward maintaining an apolitical judicial process. First, she cited the need for the public to be more aware of the judicial system as a whole, and to realize the extreme importance of state, and not just federal, judges. Secondly, she advocated the need for creative solutions against bias in the courtroom. She urged everyone present to become involved in the law in some way or another.
“Judges must also express their opinions so that the public, and not just other judges, can understand,” Marshall said. “My greatest fear is the neglect and indifference of the rest of us.”
While the lecture, held in the Memorial Chapel, was well attended, some students felt that audience turnout could have been better.
“I really enjoyed her talk,” said Jesse Young ’06. “I just wish that there had been more advertising about the event. More students should know about it, because last year’s lecture was just as great.”
Alexander Levy ’08 said that she thought that Marshall gave a fantastic speech and was particularly adept at answering questions from the students and faculty.
“She was never caught remotely off guard, and she’s classy,” Levy said. “I like the pearls.”
Chi-Hoon Kim ’06, a government major, participated in an informal dinner with Justice Marshall.
“She advises everyone to go to law school at age twenty-nine, which is when she went, because it’s never too late,” said Kim.
The Hugo L. Black Lecture was made possible by the endowment of Leonard S. Halpert ’44 who attended the gathering along with President Doug Bennett and numerous students and faculty members.
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