Indiana Needs a Stronger State Supreme Court
- Rationale.
If the law is a learned profession, where scholarship is pivotal, six million Hoosiers deserve a legal system run by a gifted bench, which we do not really have at this point, although it is getting better.
Identifying “gifted” persons should not be reduced to weighing academic fruit salad. It might be good to have someone with no formal education beyond high school, for example, on the US or a state supreme court, to remind ourselves of the limited import of formal education. A Ray Bradbury, an Elon Musk or a Bill Gates in the law. (As late as 1954, the US Supreme Court included Justice Jackson, who did not attend college, and had one year of law school at Albany, along with Justice Reed, who attended law school, but had no degree.) However, the Bradbury/Musk/Gates thing is not what is happening here.
- Profiles of most recent judges, oldest to newest.
Judge Dickson, now 78, was a C student at Purdue. In his 11 hard science and math courses, he had 7 C’s, 2 D’s, an F and a withdrawal. (That matters. Eight of the 10, and 15 of the 20, college majors with the highest average IQ’s are in math and the hard sciences, but none of the lowest 10. Statisticsbrain.com) Appendix 1.
He carried a B- (2.79) at IU Indpls Law evening division, working as a claims adjuster during the day. The school was ranked at about the 33rd percentile of law schools for 2017 by US News (tied for 100th out of 149) and the 42nd percentile (121 out of 208) by startclass.com. US News listed only 9 law schools that accepted a higher ratio of applicants than the 70% at IU-Indpls, and only 16 with lower average LSAT’s than the average of 152 at that school, but that is partly because US News attempts to rank only about the stronger 2/3 or so of schools. The only updating I have done since 2017 is to check rankings for 2020 ( #112), and 2021 (122 out of 147 schools ranked).
The school does turn out many good lawyers, including three national merit finalists who have worked for me, and several highly successful politicians.
Dickson won a law school award for a student note, and a book award, probably as the best or one of the best students in a course. It would seem a bright but not gifted student might easily win one book, out of 26 courses taken, at a less selective law school. I have no other evidence he is gifted (National Honor Society, IQ or other test scores, etc), but the book still merits a closer look, as a possible indicator of a gifted person. He retired in 2016.
Judge Rucker was a B or B – (2.87) student at IU/Northwest (Gary), with a C average in his 7 hard science and math courses. He carried a 73 or 74 average (C or C-) at Valpo Law School, which was not among the 149 schools ranked by US News, when last ranked. Startclass.com showed it 194 out of 208, for 2017. Appendix 2. The school has stopped accepting students, and basically shut down.
He did attend on a full tuition Wilson/King fellowship, and spoke at commencement. There are many schools where such honors would indicate a gifted person, but did they do so at Valparaiso? Judge Rucker retired in 2017.
Judge David showed little promise at Columbus North–test scores, Nat Honor Society, science awards , forensic achievements, etc. He attended Murray State, where until very recently, SAT’s hovered near 1000 or 1100 math and verbal total. That suggests an average IQ of 100 to 103. Braingle.com. Compare to say an 1190 at DePauw or Purdue, suggesting an average near 122.
He did lead the 15 or 20 finance majors in his class (the 15 or 20 based on a conversation with a prof there at the time). However, this group probably included between 0 and 3, who tested at or above the mean for Purdue or De Pauw , where the 122 says bright, but still 8 below the lowest figure commonly seen for gifted, of 130.
He was in the middle third, about the 66th percentile, at IU/Indpls Law School. Appendix 3, and was appointed to the court in 2010.
David was one of a large group of very average people deliberately handed control at Guantanamo– many of whom called it a “farce” or the like and quit, including 5 chief prosecutors.
“Human Rights Watch is convinced that the continued use of the military commissions is a grave mistake. Given their substandard procedures and tainted history, Human Rights Watch does not believe that judgments handed down by military commissions will be perceived as legitimate, either domestically or internationally.”
See also Capital Cases in Kangaroo Courts.
Update: A year prior to a retention vote set for November, 2022, David announced his retirement from the court. This would have been his first such vote, after a full 10 year term. His successor is Derek R. Molter, who joined the court September 1 , 2022. Molter graduated Phi Beta Kappa undergrad, and top 3% of his law school class, both from IU Bloomington.
Judge Massa’s application for appointment to the state supreme court responds to “Describe any academic honors, awards and scholarships you received and when” with “None.” He was in the 42d percentile (123/211) at IU-Indpls School of Law. Appendix 4 pp 1-3 of application. His application also does not indicate significant leadership, prior to his political jobs. He was appointed in March, 2012.
The application of judge Rush, who joined the court in November, 2012, shows a much stronger academic record than the above persons.
3. The 2013 Court–Weakest east of the Mississippi?
After combing through state supreme court bios, I am fairly sure the 2013 Indiana court would be the weakest east of the Mississippi in 2020, and very close to the weakest to the west as well. I do not believe you will find another state, east or west, where all but one of the judges was either a non-honors or poor performer, at one of the weakest law schools in that state.
Is such a court more likely to hold that a gifted lawyer, with a ring side seat, has no first amendment right to sharply criticize exploitive values and behavior, in the legal system? Regardless of how many bankruptcy fee experts are using graphic language in addressing the problem?
Is such a court more likely to punish a lawyer, for sharply criticizing exploitive values and behavior, in a “religious” belief system, that dominates the venue? That leaves the public, or gentiles if you like, in a terrible position. It ignores the 9-0 position of the US Supreme Court, confirming the right to sharply criticize jews, in Terminiello vs Chicago.
It also ignores the mandate, that disciplinary authorities cannot trump the free speech rights of lawyers, except when constitutional rights of parties are threatened in a pending matter. Gentile vs Nevada State Bar. See “free speech for lawyers” below.
4. Serious improvement since 2013. However…
The addition of judges Slaughter in 2016 and Goff in 2017 also improved the academic profile of the court. Like Rush, they were both honors or strong students, at Indiana’s second strongest law school, IU/Bloomington (Maurer), commonly ranked in the top 35 or 40 schools nationally.
However, it is hard to find a state, where none of the supreme court judges attended what is probably the strongest law school in that state, or even has a degree in any field, from that school. (Illinois has no judges from the Univ. of Chicago. Pennsylvania has none from Penn, but has two from Yale and Columbia law schools. Georgia has none from Emory, but 3 from Harvard Law and 1 from Duke, plus two Duke undergrad. I found none, other than those 3 states. Maybe you can.) Might it improve the profile of the court, to have even one strong graduate, in any field, from Notre Dame, commonly in the top 20 or so law schools nationally?
The 2020 elevation of Justice Barrett to the US Supreme Court might dramatize Indiana’s failure, because she attended Notre Dame Law School, and had taught there for years, up to the time of her elevation.
Also, the great majority of states have at least one justice from a flagship law school, sometimes identified as “T 14”, meaning top 14, although that is mainly a frame of reference. Indiana had Justice Boehm ((Harvard) until 2010, and Shepherd (Yale) until 2012.
Six of the 30 other states besides Indiana, east of Kansas, also have no such judge. (We credit Ky for a Duke LLM pending in 2020. Several states pass relying on Georgetown, on the bubble as #14 for 2020 and 2021 in US News, which is a general news magazine and not a professional organization.) The 6 includes 4 of the 5 states with the lowest household incomes in the U.S. (Miss, W Va, Ark and La), along with Tenn and Ill. Tenn has two from Vanderbilt (#18 per US News), and probably edges Indiana due to that.
Five of the remaining 19 states ( to the west) also lack justices who studied at a flag ship school. Three of those have the least dense population in the lower 48 (Wyo, Mont and N Dak), and the other 2 are also thinly populated (Id, the 6th thinnest, and Kan, the 10th thinnest).
In short, Indiana is one of only 3 states, that is neither among the poorest, nor the most thinly populated, but still lacks judges who studied at flag ship law schools, on its supreme court.
