For Great Justice

A big giant day full of democracy here in Randolph Vermont. I...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:36:00 -0500

A big giant day full of democracy here in Randolph Vermont. I spent the morning at Town Meeting then scooted to the gym and came back in time to staff the polls for a few hours and then counted votes for an hour, making sure the numbers matched and that all the write-ins were tabulated. A good time. Next time I’ll bring snacks. (and yeah I guess that’s the only sweater I ever wear, huh?) My other photos from Town Meeting are here.

voting, now and then

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:08:56 -0500

The JP job has a lot more to do with voting than marrying. That is, if you don’t want to, you don’t really have to marry anyone, but part of the gig is checking voter registrations, being present at the polls, delivering ballots to people who can’t be at the polls, and counting write-in votes.

I’ve been digging through the pile of paperwork I got at the Board of Civil Authority meeting (a board I was not on when I went, but I am on now) and it’s mostly straightforward stuff. I’m surprised, as always, just how much of this stuff really is codified and written down. Only sort of related, I found this book on Open Library that talks about how soldiers voted when they were off fighting the Civil War. Sort of interesting if you’re nerdy about this sort of thing. If you, too, are interested check out Voting in the Field, a forgotten chapter of the Civil War.

It's official!

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:07:45 -0500

Since it is now February I am now a Justice of the Peace. Feels mostly the same so far. I’ve amended the header text on this blog. I can now marry anyone who wants to be married in the State of Vermont. From the Board of Civil Authority meeting last night it appears that the majority of my time will be spent counting write-in ballots after Town Meeting next month.

I went to my first meeting of the Board of Civil Authority. I am...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:34:10 -0500

I went to my first meeting of the Board of Civil Authority. I am not official yet but this was just to get a feel for what happens. I have homework: read this stuff. Apparently I am the only person in the entire world who does not know the guy who runs the meeting. There were no introductions. All they did was looked at the voter registrations to make sure they all looked kosher and chose slots for who would staff the polls for the school budget vote for next week. I offered to be the “Democrat” who would go deliver ballots to folks who needed one brought to their home since you need one person from each party. It was a fun and short meeting. I was the youngest one there by at least ten years.

"Welcome aboard! Bring armor."

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:33:00 -0500

“Welcome aboard! Bring armor.”

- The Town Clerk’s response to me when I dropped off my paperwork and asked if there was anything else I needed to know before the Board of Civil Authority meeting tomorrow.

Sworn in! Since my first day on the job is February 1st and I...

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 10:46:09 -0500

Sworn in! Since my first day on the job is February 1st and I have a Board of Civil Authority meeting on Wednesday, I figured I should get this all taken care of. This is my friend (and also Town Moderator and lawyer) Kelly Green who swore me in. You have the option of swearing in on a bible or just “under penalty of perjury” I chose the latter and we filled out some paperwork and once I submit it to the Town Clerk I’ll be official come February first. There is a long and venerable tradition of people being sworn in at night on an ad hoc basis in Vermont.

Wishing you great peace and great justice in 2013

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 17:02:34 -0500

I’m going to dial it back a little bit in 2013. The daily posts have been great fun but the pickings are slim until I actually start my post in February (and maybe even after that). Feel free to send on suggested links/images to me, my first name at the gmail machine.

frontier justice(s)

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 23:00:00 -0500

So San Diego was a place before it was a place in the United States. Most people know this What I did not know was how the governmental system worked in places that were sort of becoming part of the US and sort of part of another country. A peek into the digital archives of the University of Southern California finds this neat letter (original written in Spanish but with a translation written in English afterwards) where the JP of San Diego in 1836 writes to the folks in Los Angeles to ask why they’re incommunicado. Based on this Wikipedia page, I believe the translation of the JPs name is wrong and the letter is actually from Santiago Argüello the last full-time Commandant of the area and the second Justice of the Peace (Juez de Paz).

Aug. 18 James A. Wickersham diary, 1900. [Photo by James...

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Aug. 18 James A. Wickersham diary, 1900. [Photo by James Wickersham in Rampart Alaska. Amusingly additional notes seem to imply that while C. H. Knapp called himself the US Commissioner, he was never officially appointed to that position.]

Signs in the photo read

Edmund D. Wiggin,
Register US Land Office,
Groceries.
C. H. Knapp,
US Commissioner,
Justice of the Peace.
U.S. Land Office.

JPs sometimes have to make judgment calls on unorthodox methods...

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

JPs sometimes have to make judgment calls on unorthodox methods of providing bona fides. The National Archives shares this story of a woman in Connecticut, Asenath Goodale, who successfully used her daughter’s sampler as proof of her marriage before Justice of the Peace R. F. Barnard in order to receive a widow’s pension in the early 1800’s.

Certificates of Freedom

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

One of the historical jobs Justices of the Peace would sometimes do in the course of their duties was to issue certificates of freedom. These were papers that black people would have to carry on them in many states to ensure that they would not be harassed as runaway slaves. Since this was pre-photography in many cases, there would be descriptions of the people carrying the papers to make sure that they were not using someone else’s certificate of freedom. Here is some more description of the process.

Justice of the Peace and Constables Association entry in...

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:21:31 -0500

Justice of the Peace and Constables Association entry in Governor Fuller Warren’s inaugural parade photograph by Forrest Granger, 1949.

quirky little not-justice stuff

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:18:00 -0500

So some days people send me things for this blog and other times I just do some idle Googling while things are slow at MetaFilter. So I look for things like the phrase “Justice of the peace” juxtaposed with words like crazy, funny, weird, interesting, etc.

I’m not even sure what I was looking for the other day when I found this Wikipedia page about Conservators of the Peace. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, this is a similar office to JPs but with a few miscellaneous other bits to it. I had never heard of this before and was surprised. After doing some more digging—check the citations at the end of the Wikipedia articles, folks!—it seems that the article is based almost entirely on one guy’s “research” (pdf, but it’s basically the same as the Wikipedia article) a guy whose job just happens to be running training classes for Virginia CPsand who this guy has a sort of checkered past with the whole CP thing but appears to be an attorney who defends gun cases. Huh. Here’s more on the odd Virginia Conservator of the Peace designation which the Washington Post calls “archaic.”

So, even though the research document is legit and has real citations and all the rest, the fact that there’s a Wikipedia article which basically cribs from it is not at all cool from a Wikipedia standpoint. And I was partway in to going down the path to formally objecting to all of this when I realized that I’d started out doing something else and that I would rather be doing that something else, but I’m leaving a note here for later about it. Neat, huh?

A holiday message from Yolanda Begum who was running for Justice...

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 11:26:00 -0500

A holiday message from Yolanda Begum who was running for Justice of the Peace in Cameron County Texas in what was a hotly contested race.

yolandabegum:

BE INSPIRED. This woman is 90-years young in the foreground and she is moving around with such spirit, the photo blurred! She is an example of a type of giving and service we should all strive for. This nice lady has been serving the homeless and needy at Good Neighbor Settlement in Brownsville, Texas for the past 10 years.

Yes, you read that right - since she was 80 years she has been showing up nearly daily to help serve 3 square meals a day to those in need. This woman is an example of all that is beautiful and great in Cameron County! I ask you to be inspired by her this Christmas Season! These are the types of people that make running for office worth it - knowing that as a Justice of the Peace in Cameron County Precinct 2, Place 2 that I am serving the needs of those who serve others.

Merry Christmas to this young lady and all whom she serves, and may God bless us all with the gift of such giving through all our years.

I couldn’t figure out why this sheep shearing image from...

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

I couldn’t figure out why this sheep shearing image from the National Library of Australia was turning up when I was searching for “justice of the peace” but when I inspected the metadata it turns out that this shearing endurance record was certified by local Justices of the Peace (plural).

JP (qualified)

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

In Queensland Australia there are two main types of Justices of the Peace. The one kind is called Justice of the Peace (Qualified) which sort of calls into question what the other kind is called…. which is C.decs (commissioner of declarations). The second type are just for getting your document signatures witnessed. The other sort have a small amount of training, or qualifications. when you buy your JP merch, you have to tell them what sort of JP you are. More details about this from the JP FAQ.

a solstice message from another Vermont JP

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Filling in a few blanks here with some timely JP tales, this one is from Susan Beal, another VT JP and the editor of Planet Vermont.

[T]hat is what this season is meant to remind us of.

Forgiveness is not a behavior, but an expansion of awareness beyond the duality of guilt and blame, right and wrong. It is not an excuse for inaction during times of crisis or wrongdoing, but a request for compassion and tolerance to guide one’s response. It is the ability to embrace a more expanded consciousness in which the context of a situation is seen as being part of a larger whole, all of which are seated within a love and intelligence beyond our comprehension.

from Latrobe on Justices’ Practice published in Baltimore...

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:20:00 -0500

from Latrobe on Justices’ Practice published in Baltimore Maryland in 1880. Includes information for JPs, constables and coroners. (pdf)

blogging from the bench?

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 23:24:00 -0500

Apparently “courts and tribunal judicial office holders in England and Wales” have received instructions about what they can and can’t talk about when and if they blog. Specifically, it notes that

Blogging by members of the judiciary is not prohibited. However, officer holders who blog (or who post comments on other people’s blogs) must not identify themselves as members of the judiciary. They must also avoid expressing opinions which, were it to become known that they hold judicial office, could damage public confidence in their own impartiality or in the judiciary in general.

The above guidance also applies to blogs which purport to be anonymous. This is because it is impossible for somebody who blogs anonymously to guarantee that his or her identity cannot be discovered.

Which calls into question the future of the anonymous Magistrates blog which I mentioned earlier and while still seems to be chugging along just fine (and discussed this matter here in three parts 1, 2, 3). This has less than nothing to do with me or this blog but I found it interesting. Via my favorite new amusing judicial blog, Legal Cheek.

A Justice of the Peace gesturing to the left (costume design) by...

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 18:34:00 -0500

A Justice of the Peace gesturing to the left (costume design) by Jean Francois Léonor Mérimée. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, purchased at a Christies auction.