Miscellaneous

Goodbye Handshake

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Chief Justice Moyer was the kind of person who would attend an event and greet people at the door with a handshake. Not the Vote for me! kind, but the Glad you could stop by! kind. We know the difference.

So we were very sorry to hear that this tireless advocate of ADR (he started one of the first and best foreclosure mediation programs), election reformer (he opposed judicial elections), and all-around nice guy passed away yesterday. He worked to improve state-federal bench relations, supported innovations for court interpreters, enjoyed bipartisan support, worked well with other branches of government (if that doesn't seem important, see: Florida), and championed drug courts well ahead of the fray. In fact, it was at an NADCP conference where he was handing out handshakes -- not as a keynote speaker, not as a candidate, but as a person there to support the work of panelists at a session on state drug courts.

His opinions weren't too bad, either. Sure we will have to agree to disagree at times, but a recent decision requiring a warrant for cell phone searches set the tone for other jurisdictions who might not yet have examined the question.

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on April 03, 2010 (boomark / email).