The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1922-02-09

Chief Justice Theodore Brantly
has been on the supreme court
bench of Montana for 80 years., and
the other day the Rotary club of
Helena gave a luncheon at which
he was the honor guest. He was
introduced by Associate Justice AL
bert Galen, as 1.-THE grand old man
of Montana" Justice Galen re-
viewed the career OF the veteran
iurist, after which Judge Brantly
gave an interesting address on the
workings of the supreme court, de-
voting his remarks t court SUBJ
jects of interest to Iaymen rather
than lawyers.
Judge Brantly recalled the first
convention in 1889 in which the three
justices were named, Blake, HARDWOOD
and Dewitt. He said that since the
days of statehood there has been
three chief justices, Blake, Pember-
ton and himself, and a singular coin
cidence was that adj three were from
the south.
The constitution of Montana pro-
vided for three divisions of govern
ment-legislative, executive and judi
cial, the two first named aggressive
and originate and execute laws, while
the judiciary is negative and can
only operate when their powers are
invoked by a litigant. And then the
court can only say what the law is
as the court see it.
No Politics in Work
Justice Brantly during his "a
years service on the supreme bench,
told of the associate justices, some
republicans and some of them demo-
Gratis and declared that in all these
years he never had observed the
slightest disposition on the part of
any of the judges to act along poll
teal lines. Never had he seen any
manifestation of corrupt or partisan
motives.
He told of proceedings in the SUI
preme court, how cases were filed
and arguments submitted at a hear
ing, how the justices were each re-
quired to acquaint themselves with
each case, even to the extent of read
ing transcripts covering $50 printed
pages; how the case was assigned to
one of the judges to study and pre-
pare an opinion; how a conference
of the full court was held and the
decision discussed and all points
cleared up; how the authorities were
consulted to be certain that the points
of law had been correctly or other
wise ruled on by the lower court
and then the judges signed the de-
cision or wrote dissenting opinions.
"The justice who studies the case
and writes the ODiniOn gets credit
for it," said Justice Brantly, "but
consent of the other justices, so in
effect it is the work of ALL"
Discussing the courts, the chief
justice said that somehow people
had the'idea that any mar who had
a license to practice law would make
at least a fairly satisfactory judge.
But ] can say to you that being
a Judge is a real mans job" he con-
cit means hard work and
q lot of it. It's not easy. I know
when I came to the supreme court,
even with the experience of several
terms as a district judge, I discovered
that I was pretty green. 1t probably
generally known, but I spent an
average of 16 hours a day, including
Sunday, at work, until four years
when my health broke under the
My friends used to say l was
q fool for putting in such long hours
and now I'm inclined to think they
were right. I didn't realize, l guess,
that there will be thousands of law
suits to be decided after I'm dead
and gone"