The John F. Sonnett Memorial Lectures at Fordham University School of Law

A Half-Century of Advocacy and Judicial Perspectives

Dennis J. Kenny, Joel E. Davidson, Dennis J. Kenny, Joel E. Davidson

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780823276653
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Jurisprudence
• Index: Law

This book represents the distinguished Sonnett lecture series sponsored by Fordham's Law School that has taken place for the last 45 years. In this collection, U.S. Supreme Court Justices, a Lord Chancellor of England, three Chief Justices of Ireland, a Chief Justice of South Africa, a President of the Supreme Court of Israel, and other leading judges and lawyers examine common law–based legal systems and underlying principles. The lectures encourage attorneys and society to improve the training of lawyers, respect the independence of the judiciary, place ethics at the forefront, question the efficacy of the criminal justice system, and explore the complex philosophical issues facing the judiciary.Taken as a whole, these lectures are a prescription for improvements and innovations throughout the legal system. The lectures were delivered by judges and lawyers who were involved in many of the most significant cases of the last half-century that strengthened individual rights and promoted access to justice. Each finds its deepest meaning in advancing the theme of Fordham Law School: "In the Service of Others."

The Supreme Court of the United States: Managing Its Caseload to Achieve Its Constitutional Purposes

William T. Coleman Jr.

William T. Coleman Jr. delivered the thirteenth Sonnett lecture, entitled The Supreme Court of the United States: Managing Its Caseload to Achieve Its Constitutional Purposes, on May 9, 1983.¹ Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1920, Coleman graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1946.² Mr. Coleman served on the editorial board for the Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1945.³

After graduating, Coleman clerked for Judge Herbert F. Goodrich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.⁴ He became the first African-American clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court, clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter.⁵ However, he was not welcomed by the large New York and Philadelphia law firms until Justice Frankfurter intervened with the Paul Weiss firm on his behalf.⁶

After his clerkship, Coleman entered private practice, where he was a key legal strategist and coauthored the legal brief for plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education,⁷ which held racial segregation in schools to be unconstitutional in 1954.⁸ In 1982, Coleman successfully argued before the Supreme Court to ban tax exemptions for private schools that denied black students admission.⁹

In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford appointed Coleman Secretary of Transportation.¹⁰ Coleman oversaw the launch of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s car testing center in Ohio and the creation of pipeline safety and hazardous material regulations.¹¹

Coleman is an accomplished author, publishing his memoir, Counsel for the Situation: Shaping the Law to Realize America’s Promise, in addition to numerous scholarly articles.¹² He has received several awards, including the Congressional Medal of Freedom, presented by President Bill Clinton in 1995, and the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award, awarded by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1997.¹³

Mr. Coleman’s Sonnett lecture, The Supreme Court of the United States: Managing Its Caseload To Achieve Its Constitutional Purposes, focused on the effect of the Supreme Court’s excessive caseload on the quality of judicial decision-making.¹⁴ This rising workload affects the Court’s ability to fulfill its goal of maximizing individual freedoms, erodes the quality of decision-making, deflates the Court’s influence, and reduces collegiality.¹⁵ His lecture is as timely today as it was thirty years ago.¹⁶

Mr. Coleman examined the solutions that have been proposed, such as the establishment of a national appellate court or a rotating panel of judges from the appellate courts.¹⁷ He ultimately rejected these solutions, however, as they would alter the core responsibilities of the Court and fail to fully address the workload problem.¹⁸ Mr. Coleman concluded his address by proposing four reforms: (1) make the Court’s mandatory appellate jurisdiction discretionary, except for constitutional cases involving fundamental human rights that may cause nationwide divisiveness; (2) allow inter-circuit conflicts to be resolved among the affected circuits without the Court’s intervention; (3) limit the Court’s review to only issues of fundamental national importance; and (4) discourage unnecessary litigation through judicial restraint, collegial deference, and disciplined opinion writing.¹⁹

William T. Coleman Jr. died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease at his home in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 31, 2017, age ninety-six.

Introduction written by Elizabeth Langton, J.D., Class of 2015, Fordham University School of Law.

1. William T. Coleman, Jr., The Supreme Court of the United States: Managing Its Caseload to Achieve Its Constitutional Purposes, 52 FORDHAM L. REV. 1 (1983).

2. See Todd C. Peppers, William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr.: Breaking the Color Barrier at the U.S. Supreme Court, 33 J. SUP. CT. HIST. 353, 355 (2008).

3. Id. at 355, 357.

4. Id. at 358; see also William T. Coleman Jr. Awarded Harvard Medal (May 28, 2013), available at http://www.naacpldf.org/news/william-t-coleman-jr-awarded-harvard-medal.

5. See Peppers, supra note 2, at 362; see also William T. Coleman Jr. Awarded Harvard Medal, supra note 4. While clerking, Mr. Coleman and his fellow clerk, Elliot Richardson, spent one hour each day reading Shakespeare, a unique daily activity that has become lore among Supreme Court law clerks. See Peppers, supra note 2, at 359–60.

6. WILLIAM T. COLEMAN, JR., COUNSEL FOR THE SITUATION (Brookings Institution, 2010).

7. 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

8. See Rich Barlow, William T. Coleman, Jr., to Be Honored at Commencement, BU TODAY (May 12, 2010), http://www.bu.edu/today/2010/william-t-coleman-jr-to-be-honored-at-commencement/.

9. Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (1983); Barlow, supra note 8.

10. See Barlow, supra note 8; see also WILLIAM T. COLEMAN JR., supra note 6.

11. See Barlow, supra note 8.

12. See WILLIAM T. COLEMAN JR., supra note 6.

13. Id.

14. See generally Coleman, supra note 1.

15. See id. at 1–2.

16. See, e.g., EDWIN CHERMERINSKY, THE CASE AGAINST THE SUPREME COURT (2014). Professor Chermerinsky proposes...