Jurisprudence

A look back at the life of a fellow presiding justice in the neighboring state of Alabama Of all those remarkable individuals I have met during my 40 years in local politics and the state judiciary, far and away the most interesting is…
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A fresh cup reminds us of stories from times past On August 21, 1971, Sandra Sue Franklin and I declared our marriage vows. So, this year qualifies as our Golden Anniversary—50 years. In the last decade, most of our mornings together…
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“The right to trial by jury shall remain inviolate.”- Tennessee Constitution In the 16th century, Shakespeare found that a trial within his plays added drama to his story lines. The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and A Winter’s Tale, the…
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Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it Deep divisions exist in America. The states are no longer united. Morality and economy are in conflict. The year is 1850, and the country is in crisis. What brought a nation…
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FDR 'lifted the nation from its knees' merica teetered on the brink of disaster. The stock market crashed in 1929. Banks began to fail. During the one-term presidency of Herbert Hoover, industrial production in this country fell by 47…
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Mountain recollections include a special dinner with the neighbors In 1950, my father traded a new Ford and $400 to Newt Ogle for a lot on the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River in the Emerts Cove community of Sevier County. …
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In 1961, during his last visit to America, Winston Churchill, the heroic Prime Minister of England throughout World War II, was asked at a news conference what he thought of the United States Constitution. Perhaps because the Magna Carta,…
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Civil rights history lesson enforces tragedy of racism Medgar Evers, born on July 2, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi, grew up on a small farm, attended a segregated school, and earned a high school diploma. At 18, he enlisted in the U.S.…
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Highway helper offered assistance on California roadways as a way to honor an earlier kindness On a winter day in 1966, a teenage driver was, to use his own words, “tom-catting around” in a remote area of Illinois. When a blizzard…
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As a farm boy in Kansas, Charles Plumb dreamed of flying airplanes. His acceptance by the Naval Academy in 1960 became the first meaningful step towards his ultimate goal. After graduation, he completed flight school and reported to the…
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