Remarks by Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants Recognizing Justice Hines Supreme Judicial Court Seven Justice Courtroom John Adams Cour

Remarks by Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants Recognizing Justice Hines Supreme Judicial Court Seven Justice Courtroom John Adams Courthouse Boston, MA May 4, 2017 Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants made special remarks prior to oral arguments on May 4, 2017, recognizing retiring Supreme Judicial Court Justice Geraldine S. Hines. Justice Hines: When Justice Geraldine Hines was nominated to serve on the Supreme Judicial Court, she pledged to Governor Deval Patrick, "I will labor with every fiber of my being to validate your trust in my ability to be a wise and fair judge of every issue that comes before the court." I can attest, as can every other Justice who has sat with you these past three years, that you have been true to that pledge. You have brought to this court not only your abundant wisdom and fairness, but also your passion for the truth, your enormous capacity to listen (not only to what is said but to what has remained unsaid), your uncommon good sense, your grace, your humor, and your courage. You have patience for all but the pompous. And unsparingly, you speak truth to power. You have been speaking truth to power since you were a small girl growing up in the segregated South, the oldest of ten children, living on the edge of poverty in the heart of Jim Crow. At the age of sixteen, inspired by a mother who, in your words, "prayed without ceasing," you enrolled in Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. Upon graduation in 1968, you enrolled in the University of Wisconsin Law School, where you joined the Black Student Alliance's efforts to create a black studies department and recruit more black faculty and students. The Alliance's organization of class boycotts and a strike caused the Governor to order the National Guard to Madison, which prompted thousands more to join the strike. The next year, the Wisconsin Board of Regents approved the creation of the Department of Afro- American Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Last year, when you returned to Madison, you were greeted, not by the National Guard, but by the Wisconsin Alumni Association, which gave you its highest honor, the Distinguished Alumni Award. After graduation from law school, you came to Boston and commenced your legal advocacy for those in need. As a Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellow, one of the famed "Reggies," you fought for the rights of prisoners with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. You went on to defend indigent criminal clients with the Roxbury Defenders' Committee, eventually becoming Director of the Committee. Frustrated by the continued mistreatment of students of color in schools in the South, you joined Harvard University's Center for Law and Education, where you fought against the disproportionate suspension of children of color. Years later, as a Justice of this court, you once again devoted countless hours to help those in need as Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission. With Margaret Burnham and Judith Dilday, you co-founded the first law firm of women of color in New England. Professor Burnham writes of her former law partner, "Her clear articulation of what fair and inclusive norms require, written in a voice that is wise, unyielding, and inspiring, have made Justice Hines one of our most influential jurists. She has spoken softly, but carried a mighty gavel." In 2001, Governor Paul Cellucci nominated you to serve as an Associate Justice of the Superior Court. Your fellow Superior Court Judges speak of you with a combination of love and reverence. Your good friend, Judge Chris Muse, describes you as "the brightest, the most patient, the kindest, the most thoughtful, the sweetest, and the toughest." In 2013, Governor Patrick nominated you to serve as an Associate Justice of the Appeals Court, the first African-American woman to serve on that court. But he soon had greater ambitions for you, nominating you a year later to become the first African-American woman to serve on this court. Among the many opinions you authored, you recognized that, when a young black man walks away from the police, the inference of consciousness of guilt must be weighed against the possibility that he is simply fed up with the indignity of racial profiling. In another opinion, you wrote, "Our law does not permit punishment of the homeless simply for being homeless," and concluded that a homeless man may raise the defense of necessity if he has nowhere safe to go to escape the frigid cold of a western Massachusetts winter. And when you wrote those opinions, you spoke for a unanimous court. As a mentor, Justice Hines has inspired many, but perhaps none more than her law clerks. They speak of her kindness, her patience as a teacher, her humility, and her thoughtfulness. She encouraged her clerks and interns to critically examine the consequences of every word they wrote. As one clerk said, "She doesn't do legal analysis in a vacuum. She doesn't ignore history and context." Perhaps most memorably, she encouraged her law clerks to find their own distinctive voice. One law clerk recalled, "She would always say, 'Be yourself; don't be a navy suit.'" Which should cause all of us to think twice about wearing a navy suit. I think it is fair to say that one who has devoted her entire life to speaking truth to power is not the retiring type. We will give her a few months to breathe; her daughter has travel plans for her that include possibly a trip to Europe and another to Madagascar. But I expect it will not be long before she will return to the causes she shed when she put on her judicial robe, and become a passionate and effective advocate to protect voting rights and the rights of immigrants. And I doubt it will be long before her adversaries learn that their wisest course is to give in now, to spare themselves the inevitable defeat later. Justice Hines, in three short years, you have made this a better court and you have made all of your colleagues better Justices. In the words of Justice Budd, you have been "a sounding board, a voice of reason, a sister, a friend." To paraphrase the Prophet Micah, in your sixteen years on the bench of three courts, you have "done justice, loved kindness, and walked humbly with your God." We will miss you greatly, but we shall not forget the lessons that you taught us by your words and, more importantly, by your example. God speed. Link to video of Remarks by Chief Justice Gants Recognizing Justice Hines .

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