Polly J. Price

Emory’s Center for Faculty Development and Excellence lists recent authors and projects in their writing and research program.  Thanks for including my book!  The link is here.

In “The Best and Worst of 2009 in Politics and Blogging,” the “Arkansas News” listed Judge Richard S. Arnold:  A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench as its “Favorite Arkansas Political Book” for 2009.  Thanks for the note!  Read the full list here.

The Eighth Circuit Bar Association and the Eighth Circuit Historical Association teamed up for a book talk and reception honoring the publication of Judge Richard S. Arnold, A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench, in September 2009.  A link to the audio portion of the presentation is here.

The description on the web site:

In April 2009, Prometheus Books released the biography, Judge Richard S. Arnold: A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench, written by the Judge’s former law clerk and Emory Law School Professor Polly Price. In honor of its publication, the Court of Appeals Branch of the Eighth Circuit Historical Society and the Eighth Circuit Bar Association collaborated on an event featuring the author.

Professor Price addressed the Eighth Circuit bench and bar on September 21, 2009 in St. Louis’ Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse during the Court of Appeals’ court week. In her fascinating presentation, Professor Price related stories about Judge Arnold that were omitted from the final version of the book.

A belated thank-you to Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Mo.  This wonderful book store hosted the book signing at the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis in late September, for Judge Richard S. Arnold:  A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench (Prometheus Books 2009).  Please see their web site at www.left-bank.com

Dallas, Texas, November 14:  American Society for Legal History

Des Moines, Iowa, December 18:  Iowa State Bar Association’s Federal Practice Seminar

A video link is available to a recent interview by Steve Barnes, aired on the Arkansas Educational Television Network.  This 30-minute conversation, from the series “Steve Barnes and…”, discusses Judge Richard S. Arnold:  A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench.  Click here.

The Eighth Circuit Bar Association

Invites you to attend a program featuring Emory Law School Professor Polly J. Price,discussing her new book, Judge Richard S. Arnold:  A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench

The Presentation will be followed by a cocktail reception hosted by the Association.

This free program will be held on

September 21, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.

at the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse, 111 South 10th Street, St. Louis, Missouri,in the En Banc Courtroom on the 28^th Floor.

Please R.S.V.P. at: 8thCirBar@spencerfane.com or by calling (816) 292-8376.

I took part in a panel discussion at the 2009  DC Circuit Judicial Conference about preservation of non-official judicial records.  The interchange with the judges was fascinating.  The judges have very real concerns about preserving confidentiality of discussions with their colleagues.  On the other hand, with the passage of time, the need to preserve confidences is lessened.  Justice David Souter has balanced this need for contemporary confidentiality, versus future historical value, by placing a 50-year moratorium on access to his private papers.  (Reported 8/26/09).

Please comment on the folllowing summary of our presentation at the DC Circuit Judicial Conference.  A link to the report by sponsor the DC Circuit Historical society is here. And also reproduced below, with thanks to George W. Jones of Sidley Austin:

Preservation of Non-Official Judicial Papers

On Friday, June 5, 2009, members of the DC Circuit Historical Society Committee on Archival Preservation and Historical Research participated in a lively two-hour panel presentation on the preservation of judges’ non-official papers at the DC Circuit Judicial Conference at the Bedford Springs Resort in Bedford, Pennsylvania.

Committee members Maeva Marcus, Director, Institute for Constitutional Studies, The George Washington University Law School, and Daun van Ee, Historical Specialist, Library of Congress, joined Professor Polly Price, Associate Dean of Faculty and Professor of Law, Emory Law School and author of Richard Arnold: A Legacy of Justice on the Federal Bench, and Bruce Ragsdale, Chief Historian, Federal Judicial Center (“FJC”), on the panel. Committee chair George W. Jones, Jr., Sidley Austin LLP served as moderator.

Not surprisingly, one of the most hotly debated topics was the age-old question of whether judges should make any of their work product or communications about cases other than final opinions available to the public. Whether judges should preserve electronic correspondence with colleagues presented this issue in 21st Century garb. Points of view all along the spectrum of opinion were ably represented at the conference. Suffice to say, the historians on the panel had a very different view than some of the judges.

The key “takeaways” from the presentation are:

• the non-official papers of federal judges may constitute indispensable supplemental material for historians and scholars trying to understand and describe the history of the United States, the operations of the federal judiciary, and the role that individual judges played in the great events of our times; it is impossible to determine today what will be relevant and important to the questions that will be studied 50 years from today;
• as participating witnesses to the history of the United States, all federal judges – not just those who have established national reputations or who have participated in cases of national import — should consider preserving their non-official papers; it is never too early for a judge to begin thinking about preserving his or her non-official papers;
• preserving non-official papers is not nearly as burdensome as some may fear;
• the first step is to identify those repositories that may be most interested in taking a particular judge’s non-official papers; judges who have national reputations or who have handled cases of national significance should consider the Library of Congress; others should consider repository institutions the judge attended or with which the judge has some other relationship, institutions that already have the papers of other judges from the judge’s court, or institutions that have an interest in a particular subject matter that makes up a portion of the judge’s work;
• some institutions want everything; others may be more selective and can provide useful guidance as to what should be preserved; and
• concerns about confidentiality or sensitive materials can be addressed by restricting access to the papers for some specified time or limiting access to particular scholars or appointing one or more trustees with authority to determine access to the papers.

The FJC recently completed work on a second edition of A Guide to the Preservation of Federal Judges’ Papers, its useful primer on what types of papers should be preserved and how to go about preserving them. Copies of the recently released second edition were distributed at the conference.

A segment on the Judge Richard S. Arnold biography will air again on CSPAN II’s Book TV this weekend, on Saturday, August 8, at 8:15 p.m.  For more details and full schedule, click here.