Remarks by Richard P. Swanson on April 15th at NYCLA Judicial Reception

I’m Richard Swanson, and I’m NYCLA’s president for about 6 more weeks, when Ronald Minkoff takes over.  Ron, give a wave.

Welcome to our annual reception for newly elected and appointed judges, and re-elected and re-appointed judges as well.  If you’re in that second category, congratulations as your judicial accomplishments are being recognized.  If you’re in the first category, you’re embarking on a great adventure, one that is central to the rule of law in our society.

The “rule of law” is actually a very hard phrase to define.  It generally refers to a relatively stable set of reasonable transparent rules which guides behavior and about which lawyers can advise; and when disputes arise, a neutral decision maker who looks carefully at the actual facts, and who closely analyzes the legal rules, be they based in statute, regulation, or case law precedent in a manner that would make the great Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who authored The Common Law, proud.  Law evolves, but slowly as care must be taken not to upset settled expectations.  

These days the very phrase “the rule of law” has connotations which are political in nature.  That is not what I am talking about here.

Each of you should be proud to be engaging in the great effort of enforcing the rule of law.  We’re certainly proud of you and pleased to be able to celebrate your accomplishments.

To those of you in attendance tonight, thank you for coming.  We’re at capacity.  Some of you I know joined our Association just to be able to attend.  We welcome and thank you, and we look forward to you becoming active members of our Association.

To those of you who have been members before, thank you for your support, and please encourage others you know, who may work at your firms, or just lawyers you know simply from being in our chosen profession, to join too.  We’ve spoken out strongly in support of the rule of law for the past 15 months now, although obviously our commitment to the rule of law goes back since inception, for more than a century.  We’ve also defended judges against unfair attacks, including most recently criticizing an article in the New York Post that simply made-up facts to criticize one of our newest judges for releasing a person subject to an ICE detainer when New York law required her to grant the release, and no one told her a detainer even existed.  We need all the help we can get from new, and existing, members to support our efforts.  As the expression goes, freedom isn’t free.

I’ll close by saying we’re here at One if By Land, a beautiful venue that used to be Aaron Burr’s carriage house.  At our Home of Law at 111 Broadway, we overlook Trinity Graveyard, where Alexander Hamilton was buried after their duel, so we kind of have two bookends of American history here.

Thank you and enjoy your evening.  I look forward to chatting with a good many of you.