Now on display in the Courthouse: Judge Burnita Shelton Matthews
When Burnita Shelton Matthews passed the DC bar exam in 1920, her membership application and check for dues were rejected by the men-only DC Bar Association. She went on to become a distinguished federal judge and a founder and president of the National Association of Women Lawyers. Her story and portrait are the subject of the Historical Society's latest exhibit, now on display on the ground floor of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse.

Read the 12th edition of the Society's newsletter. You'll find some items of historical interest, and you can watch the lawyers who argued Duran re-enact their closing arguments as you view the Society's most recent program, Duran and the Evolution of the Insanity Defense in the D.C. Circuit.

View our recent program, "Madness or Badness: Duran and the Evolution of the Insanity Defense in the D.C. Circuit," and the re-enactment of the closing arguments in Duran by the very lawyers who argued the case before Judge Charles R. Richey in 1996.

(Picture courtesy of the D.C. Bar. From left to right: Dr. Patrick Canavan, Stephen J. Morse, Eric Dubelier, and A.J. Kramer)

Most any lawyer would walk barefoot over hot coals for a chance to sit on the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Not always.

In 1977, celebrated attorney and legal scholar John P. Frank, who had been involved in more than 500 appeals including Brown v. Board and Miranda v. Arizona, turned down entreaties that he join the Court. In correspondence with Judge J. Skelly Wright of the D.C. Circuit, Mr. Frank said "the enormous flood of not very interesting work, all without adequate time to do a good job, is not very appealing."

Mr. Frank, who was 59 at the time, said he would have taken the Solicitor General's job "in a minute" if it had been offered to him, even thought it would have halved his earnings, but he expressed misgivings about whether being a judge was "really worthwhile," especially "when the possibility of making a major contribution.. seems to be gone now"  apparently a reference to a conservative swing in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals that began during the presidency of Richard Nixon. He said, "I have run into so many people I respect who simply wouldn’t want the job."

In a reply, Judge Wright wrote that the D.C. Circuit does get interesting and challenging cases that deal not only with the law but also with political and social issues.

The correspondence with Mr. Frank, reproduced below, is part of a collection of Judge Wright’s papers in the Library of Congress.

When President Abraham Lincoln signed the 1862 Emancipation Act outlawing slavery in the District of Columbia, he created an immediate dilemma for the D.C. courts. Were they obliged to continue to send runaway slaves back to their owners in non-Confederate states under the Fugitive Slave Act? Read more.

If you think the exclusionary rule is entirely the product of modern-day, "liberal" judges, read this account.

Two sculptures of judges have been added to the portrait exhibit of District Court judges: the busts of Judge William Cranch and Judge Bolita J. Laws. Take a look.

At a judicial conference for the judges of the Courts of the DC Circuit, a panel of distinguished guests discussed the importance of preserving the judges' personal papers and the available resources for helping judges both determine what should be preserved and identify appropriate repositories. Read the lively and instructive exchange.

Now on display in the Courthouse: Wiley Rutledge who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1939 to 1943 was the first member of the Court to be elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court. Since then, six more alumni of our Court of Appeals were named to the High Court, including four of the nine current justices, Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., - an unprecedented number from one circuit. After he became a justice, Judge Rutledge was joined by a former D.C. Circuit colleague Fred Vinson who was appointed Chief Justice. Later, D.C. Circuit Court Judge Warren Burger became Chief Justice. Judge Rutledge believed in an expansive reading of the Bill of Right s and its application to state and local authorities. He was regarded as a "common sense" judge who distrusted legal formalisms. As a Circuit judge, he dissented from a ruling upholding the conviction of Jehovah's Witnesses for selling their religious newspaper on Washington, D.C. streets without a license. Characterizing their aim as proselytizing, not profit, he said the state cannot charge for the use of the streets for the interchange of thought. In 1949 he died suddenly of a stroke at age 55.

Read the eleventh edition of our newsletter! This edition includes information on the "Duran and the Evolution of the Insanity Defense in the D.C. Circuit" program, our new brochure, our latest oral history, one of our most active historians, and the latest portrait on display in the Courthouse.

The lawyer who once said "conscious avoidance of boredom" was his career goal and who has been one of Washington's busiest and most ubiquitous practitioners for more than 40 years recounts his colorful career in a newly released Historical Society oral history. John D. Aldock, chair of the D.C. office of Goodwin Procter, says the D.C. Superior Court is one of the best state courts in the country, and that D.C. juries get a "bad rap" as soft on crime or anti-business. He describes scores of tough assignments including the representation of Iran while it was holding U.S. hostages, protecting a big-tobacco whistleblower, defending against nuclear waste and asbestos claims, and saving law firms from their own clients. From his start in Washington as a judge's clerk and then a prosecutor, his is the story of the practice of law in D.C. in the 1960s, 70s and into the 21st century.

SPOTTSWOOD WILLIAM ROBINSON III (1916-1998) - Trailblazing jurist. First African-American to be appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (1964) and to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (1966). First African-American to serve as Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit (1981). Among his other "firsts," Robinson, who graduated first in his Howard University Law School class (1939), was a lead lawyer and first to argue in the U.S. Supreme Court's hearing that resulted in the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision striking down racial segregation in the nation's public schools (1954). A practicing attorney in his native Richmond, Va., and counsel to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense and Education Fund, he worked relentlessly in the civil rights struggle. At one point, he had suits pending against 75 school districts in the state. Later, he became Dean of the Howard University Law School and a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. As a judge, he wrote important decisions furthering individual rights and protection from gender discrimination. His portrait which hangs in the Ceremonial Courtroom is the work of Washington, D.C. artist Simmie Knox.

After graduating first in his class, the best job William B. Bryant could get was an elevator operator for $32 a month. He was not permitted to use the white-only DC Bar library. Yet, in 1968, this legendary lawyer and judge was chosen by Esquire magazine as one of the 27 Americans most worth saving, and was widely regarded as among the most wise and proficient trial judges ever to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Read the heartwarming story of William B. Bryant as recounted by distinguished colleagues on the 100th anniversary of his birth at the 25th anniversary meeting of the William B. Bryant American Inn of Court.

A display of the likeness of individual judicial portraits. Every few months, we are highlighting a judge and his/her judicial portrait by displaying its likeness in the Courthouse. First on display: Judge Cranch, one of the first judges to sit on the Circuit Court where he remained for 54 years. Look for the likeness and read about Judge Cranch on the first floor of the Prettyman Courthouse and the Bryant Annex.

Coming soon: the portrait of Judge Spottswood W. Robinson.

An exhibit of the portraits and sculptures of 35 judges who have sat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is the Society's newest exhibit.