Retired Mass. Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall to Receive 2021 Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law

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argaret H. Marshall — for- A LEGACY OF COURAGE AND mer chief justice of the DETERMINATION Massachusetts Supreme Born and raised in South Africa, MJudicial Court and a lifelong advocate Marshall obtained her baccalau- for a more transparent, efficient, and reate from the University of the accountable judiciary — will receive the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. While 2021 Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law. an undergraduate, she was elected From her anti-apartheid advocacy as president of the National Union of a young adult in her native South Africa South African Students, at the time a to her pathbreaking leadership as the leading anti-apartheid organization. first woman to serve as Massachusetts’s As a student, she would attend the tri- chief justice and her steadfast commit- als of political opponents of apartheid, ment to ensuring equal justice for all to “bear witness” to the injustices they before the law, Chief Justice Marshall faced under a corrupt legal system. has advocated for and defended the She helped provide transportation to rule of law all her life. families who visited loved ones incar- “Chief Justice Marshall is an extraor- cerated as political prisoners — many of dinary example of someone who has whom, including Nelson Mandela and quietly and persistently worked to Dikgang Moseneke, were imprisoned uphold the rule of law,” said David for decades. F. Levi, director of the Bolch Judicial Chief Justice Marshall came to the Institute at Duke Law School. “Having United States in 1968 to pursue grad- witnessed and fought against the dev- PHOTO COURTESY CHOATE, HALL & STEWART uate studies at Harvard. Facing likely astating injustices of apartheid, she has imprisonment for her anti-apartheid a deep sense of the ways in which the of opinions, including the groundbreak- work were she to return to South law can be used either to undermine ing decision in Goodridge v. Department Africa, she decided to stay in the United or to protect equal treatment. She has of Public Health, which held that the States. She became a U.S. citizen in 1978 dedicated her life to ensuring that the Massachusetts Constitution prohib- and obtained a master’s degree from law in substance and administration its the state from denying same-sex Harvard and a JD from Yale Law School. promotes justice for all. Her exam- couples access to civil marriage. The Following her graduation, Marshall ple on and off the bench has inspired opinion made Massachusetts the first practiced law for 16 years in Boston judges and lawyers in this country and state to legalize gay marriage and laid and became a partner in the Boston in South Africa.” the groundwork for a sea change in atti- firm of Choate, Hall & Stewart. In 1992, Chief Justice Marshall will be hon- tudes and law across the United States. she was appointed vice president and ored during a prize ceremony program “It was my distinct honor to general counsel of Harvard University, to be broadcast online in June. Deputy appoint Margaret Marshall as a jus- the first woman to hold that position. Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke of the tice of the Supreme Judicial Court of In 1996, Gov. Weld named her an asso- Constitutional Court of South Africa, Massachusetts, where she went on to ciate justice of the Supreme Judicial the recipient of the 2020 Bolch Prize, be a great and long-serving chief jus- Court of Massachusetts, the oldest also will be honored during the broad- tice — in fact, a breakthrough jurist on continuously serving appellate court cast. (The 2020 Bolch Prize ceremony due process and equal protection issues in the Western Hemisphere; in 1999 honoring Justice Moseneke was can- specifically,” said Bill Weld, who served she became the first woman to serve as celed due to the outbreak of COVID-19.) as governor of Massachusetts from chief justice of that court. Before retiring as chief justice in 2010, 1990 to 1998 and appointed Marshall The appointment had particular Chief Justice Marshall wrote hundreds to the state’s high court in 1996. meaning for Marshall, as she explained Published by the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law. Reprinted with permission. © 2021 Duke University School of Law. All rights reserved. JUDICATURE.DUKE.EDU

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Her stout-hearted defense of reason, justice, equality, and during a 2019 Judgment first, ever, of the right to Calls podcast with Levi. fairness is crucial in these equal marriage for LGBTIQ Since her youth in South perilous times — not only in people. That tiny fragment Africa, she had revered the of her courageous leg- Supreme Judicial Court of her country of birth, South acy well-encapsulated the Massachusetts for its early Africa, but in her adopted unflinching whole.” stance against slavery: Chief Justice Marshall United States of America. has received multiple There were two deci- — EDWIN CAMERON awards for her judicial sions from the United service, including the States of which I, as a American Bar Association’s student involved in anti-apartheid Chief Justice Marshall drew again on the Thurgood Marshall Award and the activities, was aware. The first Massachusetts Constitution’s objective American Constitution Society’s Life- was, not surprisingly, Brown vs. of equality and dignity for all. “Barred time Achievement Award. She also Board of Education. . . . The [second, access to the protections, benefits and is the recipient of many honorary a] Massachusetts case decided in obligations of civil marriage, a person degrees, including one from her under- 1783, was a case decided under the who enters into an intimate, exclusive graduate alma mater, the University new, then very new, Massachusetts union with another of the same sex is of the Witwatersrand, and another Constitution, which predates the arbitrarily deprived of membership in from Yale University. She has served federal Constitution. one of our community’s most reward- as president of the United States The Massachusetts Constitution ing and cherished institutions,” she Conference of Chief Justices and chair opens, or started at the time, with wrote in Goodridge v. Department of of the board of the National Center the words, “All men are born free Public Health in 2003. “That exclusion for State Courts. She is a fellow of the and equal . . . .” The case was brought is incompatible with the constitutional American Philosophical Society, a fel- by a slave in Massachusetts who principles of respect for individual low of the American Academy of Arts challenged his servitude under that autonomy and equality under the law.” and Sciences, and an emeritus member provision. And in 1783, the Supreme That decision made headlines across of the council and executive commit- Judicial Court of Massachusetts the globe, and over the next decade, tee of the American Law Institute. She ruled that slavery was inconsis- laws across the country began to also has served as a member of the tent with the words of the new change in favor of same-sex mar- Committee on Science, Technology Massachusetts Constitution. . . . riage. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court and Law of the National Academies For that reason, the Supreme extended the right to same-sex mar- and as a board member and chair of the Judicial Court had always been a riage to all U.S. states and territories in Friends of LRC (Legal Resources Centre) revered institution for me. Yes, I Obergefell v. Hodges. in South Africa. Since retiring from the had appeared as a lawyer in the “Chief Justice Marshall stands high in bench, she has served as senior counsel court. But that wasn’t the reason the ranks of internationally renowned at Choate, Hall & Stewart. why I agreed to be considered for jurists,” said Justice Edwin Cameron, The Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law is appointment to the court. It was a retired justice of the Constitutional awarded annually by the Bolch Judicial because of its great history, out- Court of South Africa. “Her stout- Institute of Duke Law School to an lawing slavery. It is one of the first hearted defense of reason, justice, individual or organization who has cases that, as a matter of law, as equality, and fairness is crucial in these demonstrated extraordinary dedica- a matter of equality, as a matter perilous times — not only in her coun- tion to advancing the rule of law around of legal principle, said slavery is try of birth, South Africa, but in her the world. The first prize was awarded inconsistent with the objective of adopted United States of America. As in 2019 to retired U.S. Supreme Court equality and dignity for all. a proudly gay man, I can never forget Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. the awed admiration I felt when, for a — MELINDA MYERS VAUGHN is associate director of In writing the decision to legalize sharply divided court, she handed down the Bolch Judicial Institute and managing editor of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, her eloquent judicial affirmation, the Judicature.