Tagged: play

In Memoriam: Justice Antonin Scalia

POST WRITTEN BYProf. Peter Widulski, Assistant Director of the First Year Legal Skills Program and the Coach of International Criminal Moot Court Team at Pace Law School.

When a Justice of the United States Supreme Court dies while still in service, commentators typically come forward to denounce or praise the Justice’s Court decisions and engage in speculation about the Justice’s replacement. All of that, of course, is fair game.

All of us, no matter what our station, who have chosen the law as a profession must, if we are conscientious, think about how we will be remembered after we are gone and our work is done.

Justice Scalia served on the Supreme Court for thirty years and participated in numerous Court decisions that have divided commentators as to their merits. But whatever the merits, we should all be mindful of how much effort, devotion, and care must have been undertaken over decades to try to remain faithful to the solemn oath to preserve and protect the Constitution and laws of the United States.

One of the writings Justice Scalia most admired was the passage below from the 1960 play, A Man for All Seasons, about the life of Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England in the 16th Century. What the passage says about adherence to the law is perhaps worth remembering in our troubled times.

Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man’s laws, not God’s — and if you cut them down — and you’re just the man to do it — d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.

Student Perspective: Prof. Gershman as Clarence Darrow

POST WRITTEN BY: Danielle Petretta (’17), J.D. Pace Law School & Jake B. Sher (’16), J.D. Pace Law School

“Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for.”
Clarence Darrow

Over the weekend of April 24th 2015, Pace Law School’s Criminal Justice Society produced a one-man show starring Professor Bennett L. Gershman, one of the law school’s original faculty members, as the renowned American lawyer Clarence Darrow.  Darrow, one of the most famous trial lawyers in US history, was a vital member of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Professor Gershman stunned viewers with his impressive ability to transform a script adapted from Darrow’s memoirs and speeches into a powerfully effective and moving story. Gershman embodied Clarence Darrow’s wit and passion throughout the performance as the audience journeyed through Clarence Darrow’s career history. Throughout Gershman’s rendition, he captivated the audience. Beginning in a chair in Darrow’s office, the story commenced with his first career milestone, defending the Pullman Railway Company strikers led by Eugene Debs.  The audience followed Darrow through one of his more difficult trials in which he defended two union officials accused of murder in the dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times Building; that case nearly ruined Darrow’s career and reputation. Finally, the audience roared with laughter as Gershman depicted Darrow’s cross-examination of William Jennings Bryan in The Scopes Trial, a pivotal moment in which Darrow defended a schoolteacher against a Tennessee Butler Act banning state funded schools to teach the theory of Evolution.

Viewers unfamiliar with Darrow’s career left having acquired insight into Clarence Darrow’s personal and professional career, and an inspiring look at the character that remains among the most famous attorneys in American history.

Questions of right and wrong are not determined by strict rules of logic … as long as crime is regarded as moral delinquency and punishment savors of vengeance, every possible safeguard and protection must be thrown around the accused.
– 
Clarence Darrow, Crime: Its Cause and Treatment 283 (1922).

Related Readings: