[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, March - December, 1976] Page: 22 of 227
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sightseeing and similar trips and
tours during the afternoons and
evenings.
The Conference Structure
The conference actually begins
on Sunday evening, May 23, when
the judges and delegates arrive but
the sessions do not start until Mon-
day and run through Wednesday
with an added executive session for
judges on Thursday monring. The
conference is under the general
direction of Judge John C. Godbold
of Montgomery, Alabama. The sub-
stantive program has been mar-
shaled by Judge Griffin Bell of
Atlanta-who has since resigned but
who will be present in his old and
new role of a lawyer-working with
Judge Thomas Gee. In structuring
the program the effort is to try to
get things of interest, not alone to
judges, but to members of the Bar
and the public as a whole.
Much Learning on Monday
Just a thumbnail sketch will
indicate the quality of the program
that we have set up. After the
traditional welcomes from Mayor
Hofheinz, President John Lawrence
of the State Bar of Texas, Chief
Justice Joe Greenhill and former
Associate Justice W. St. John Gar-
wood, the conference gets under-
way quickly.
Of course we think that every
item on the program is of real im-
portance but some quite naturally
stand out, largely due to the nature
of the people involved and the pub-
lic awareness of these persons.
Word From On High
On the first day, for example,
Mr. Justice Lewis F. Powell, the
Circuit Justice for the Fifth Circuit,
will speak to us on a subject not yet
42MR. JUSTICE LEWIS F. POWELL
specified but which, as judges of
one of the Article III "inferior
courts," we leave to his unbridled
discretion. A few years ago at our
Judicial Conference he talked at
length about appellate advocacy,
brief writing and the woeful defi-
ciencies as seen by a Justice of the
United States Supreme Court.
Whatever his subject, this very
warm, human, personable, compe-
tent lawyer now turned Justice, will
offer something stimulating and
worth listening to.
Piercing the Iron Curtain
On the same day, Judge Robert
Ainsworth of the Fifth Circuit will
talk on internal operating proce-
dures of the Court of Appeals.
This is really pretty much the re-
sult of the recommendations of the
National Commission on Revision
of the Federal Appellate System
which recommended that every
court publish the internal operating
procedures so that members of the
Bar and litigants would not have to
just guess on a hit or miss basis on
handling matters correctly. This is
pure bread and butter stuff but* i
that's what lawyers deal with, eat
and enjoy.
Congress Looks At Us
We get a blend of both Washing-
ton and Houston views when in
this opening session we hear from
our own Miss Barbara Jordan, a
member of Congress from the
Eighteenth Congressional District
located in the Houston area. She
is well known to the Nation. From
her major role as a member of the
House Committee on the Judiciary
she is known nationwide. Consider-
ing that judges are very free with
criticism of Congress and lawyers
too, we have given her in this
Bicentennial year an opportunity to
strike back by telling us about the
federal judicial structure as seen in
the eyes of Congress.
Getting The Law From The
Medes and Persians
Tuesday moves on with a good
mixture of things of work-a-day
interest and with those of a more
philosophic nature. It begins with a
distinguished group to talk on
certification of state questions to
the state supreme courts as now
permitted in Alabama, Florida and
Louisiana. What with the great
number of cases, mostly private
law suits on a diversity basis, but
many of which are federal question
cases turning decisively at times on
state law, this is of real interest.
Florida years ago hit upon this
wonderful device that allows a
federal appellate court to certify
the question to the Supreme
Court of Florida. We have used it
extensively but still sparingly con-
sidering the large number of appeals
we have and civil appeals from
Florida. The experience of FloridaJUSTICE ALAN C. SUNDBERG
THE HOUSTON LAWYER
MARCH 1976
43
CHIEF JUSTICE HOWELL T. HEFLIN
and that of the Fifth Circuit, I
am sure had a good deal to do with
the adoption of a similar system for
the State of Louisiana. Federal
judges working with the Chief
Justice of Alabama and others were
undoubtedly very helpful in the
adoption of a constitutional provi-
sion permitting the certification of
these questions. Chief Justice
Howell T. Heflin of the Supreme
Court of Alabama and Justice Alan
C. Sundberg of the Florida Supreme
Court will discuss this along with
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[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, March - December, 1976], book, 1976; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616562/m1/22/: accessed May 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Southern University.