Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Good morning. And Thank you Dean olenicoff for once again, letting us have a meeting here at this distinguished law school. And thank each and every one of you in this room for being part of this today. We've talked for two years previously about aspects of the importance of an independent judiciary. And we've narrowed the focus of this year's conference to take a look at business and corporations in their role in the maintenance of an independent judiciary. And I think that corporations and businesses are in a special position by virtue of their economic importance in our country. And we're surely focused on that these days, you matter? And we need to know what will help make our system recover quickly and do well. Corporations stand to lose large amounts if in judicial independence waivers or if we have methods of resolving disputes that are not fair and effective. And there are a number of ways in which businesses view the current court situation as a failure. Some see runaway juries creating unpredictability, some see litigation delay and expensive discovery processes that greatly increase the cost and time of litigation. And the judiciary possibly is increasingly made up of judges, younger, who lack experience with complex business issues. And these are real concerns that need to be addressed. And there's not total satisfaction with alternative dispute resolution either. So we're going to talk about all of these factors. And these are concerns. And that's why we have asked you to be part of this discussion today.

I think the starting point, I hope, will be agreement that we do benefit by having a qualified, fair and independent judicial branch. I mean, that is significant. We also have to have a fair and appropriate alternative dispute resolution system if people are going to use that for the resolution of disputes. Now, some states, among the 50 states have had success in maintaining an independent judiciary, and I've done pretty well others have not done as well as the selection of state court judges becomes ever more political. I think the interests of all sides have been pouring a great deal of money into state judicial races. And I think in the long term, that kind of a system undermines our notions and standards for an independent judiciary. And I think that long term business interest ultimately suffered too when that happens. So justice is a special commodity. The more you pay for it, maybe the less it's worth. And I don't want to talk in economic terms with Dr. Greenspan speaking after me this morning. But I do think that's right. There were times in our country's hit street where justice was for sale and frankly, wasn't worth much. Judge Roy bean famously ran his courthouse out of a saloon in West Texas not too far from where I was born, and went to school. And everyone in Roy beans court, from defendants to jurors to lawyers, was expected to buy drinks during each of his recesses. And if you didn't buy a drink, you were held in contempt by Judge Bain, and you were fined the cost of a drink. And his courthouse had a big sign in front that red law west of the papers. And just about the sign was another sign that said ice cold beer.

Now, I would have hoped at least that the law part would have gotten top billing. But it did. He was selling ice cold beer and law in that order, I suppose because beer is the easier sell. Now in one case judge been sentenced a young man became for a murder. And the story goes, Judge beam gave him a chance to write a farewell letter to his mother before the execution. And he did and judge being peered over his shoulder as the sentence man wrote to his mother that she should retrieve the $400 in his bank account. Now that was quite a bit of money in those days, and judge been sensing there might be some profit in leniency, screened by God's we've made a mistake, this man does not deserve to die. Well, it's important to remember that the justice or sale environment of the Old West was not business friendly. In any sense, the law was chaotic. It was difficult to have faith that the government would enforce property or contract rights because for every judge been who might be in your pocket, there was another one on somebody else's pocket. And while we've come a long way, since those days, I worried that we're inching sort of backwards. As money creeps its way back into the judicial races in the indoor courts. And the pendulum of judicial bias swings both ways. Once you hang the for sale sign on the courthouse door, you can't predict who the buyer is going to be.

As Alexander Hamilton put it, a steady up right and impartial administration of the law is essential. Because no man can be sure that he may not be tomorrow, the victim of a spirit of injustice by which he might be the gainer today. And I think the same is true of judicial campaigns. As plaintiff and defendant friendly groups each race to pour more money into campaigns to get the our candidate elected. The only result they're assured of is that the rule of law is going to suffer. So I think if both sides in one of these elections unleash their weapons is they've started to do that the both the judiciary's impartiality and the public's perception of our suffer, are going to suffer and have suffered actually, and recent campaigns for judicial positions in Wisconsin, and West Virginia, give some picture of how this can emerge. And I think we're going to hear a little bit about those today. I hope today we can discuss some ways that these competing interests might come to the table and negotiate sort of a ceasefire, if you will, for everyone benefit. There may be some reluctance on the part of some major associations that represent business interests to even come to the table and discuss these issues. At least, we experience that today. And I thank each of you, who did come today. And I hope you understand the value of having an open dialogue about these issues. And I hope you're going to reach out after today to other groups and engage them in discussions to we may disagree about the best steps that we should take to address this the situation today. But I hope we can get general agreement at least that an independent judiciary is important to all of us, whether its citizens, or businesses. And I'd like to welcome today someone I know has been very committed to education to academic excellence for a very long time, both when he was a student at Georgetown University. And now that he is president of this marvelous University. Help me welcome Georgetown, President. John DeGioia.