A Highly Visible Chief

The white-haired gentleman greeting convention delegates in Dallas last week acted like a political candidate. Warren Burger, 61, joked with lawyers from all over the U.S.; he signed autographs, beamed for photographers and made five speeches in four days. One morning at a prayer breakfast, the new Chief Justice of the U.S. was moved by the singing of a Baptist youth choir. "How could anyone really worry about the young people of America," said Burger, "after witnessing what we have this morning?"

Members of the American Bar Association were flattered by Burger's interest. Earl Warren had boycotted A.B.A. conventions for ten of his last years as Chief Justice because of the intemperate criticism that some bar leaders had leveled at his court. Only last year, after announcing his retirement, did Warren appear.

Burger was plainly out to build some good will for the Supreme Court among the 135,000 members of an organization that one lawyer described as "middleaged, middle class and middle of the road." As the Chief himself confided, he hoped to show that judges need not divorce themselves from their profession -- and indeed from the world -- in order to preserve their objectivity. "The fact that judges cannot solve a problem by judicial decision," he said, "is not a reason for judges to remain silent, or to be passive spectators of life around us."

Accordingly, Burger came armed with a few ideas for reforms both in and out of the courtroom. His proposals:

qed Law schools ought to devote far more time to giving their students practical experience in how to deal with "raw facts and real-life problems." Burger contends that law schools are producing graduates who are "well-trained to write a fine appellate brief but not trained to recognize concealed usury in the sale of a television set on installments." Rare is the graduate, he argues, "who knows how to ask questions -- simple, single questions, one at a time, in order to develop facts in evidence either in interviewing a witness or examining him in a courtroom." As an example of a favorable trend, Burger praised the growing number of schools that permit their students to spend time on legal-aid and public-defender programs.

qed The nation's courts should begin at once to develop a corps of trained administrators to manage the litigation machinery "so that judges can get on with what they are presumed to be qualified to do -- namely, disposing of cases." Pointing to congested court dockets, Burger called for a conference within 60 days of ten or twelve of "the best-in formed people in this country" to plan a program to train the large numbers of managers that are needed. He suggests that no lawyers or judges, or very few of them, be asked to participate, since "we lawyers and judges have not demonstrated great imagination or skill in this area."

qed The A.B.A. should initiate a "comprehensive and profound examination" of the penal system, which would cover everything from prison conditions to parole and probation. Claiming that U.S. law offers the accused the world's most comprehensive system of trials, retrials, appeals and post-conviction reviews, Burger said: "If I were sure--and I am not sure either way--that all this was good for the accused in the large and long-range sense that it helps him, I would be enthusiastically in favor of all of it." Among the rehabilitation techniques that the Chief Justice believes should be thoroughly studied by the A.B.A. are work-release programs for prisoners and teaching methods "adapted to the abnormal psychology of the habitual offender."

Convention observers noted that while Burger's proposals were of professional interest, they were suitably noncontroversial for a new Chief Justice. Burger saved his views on more prickly issues, such as the rights of criminal defendants, for the decisions he will take part in as a member of the court. Still, one man who was particularly impressed with Burger's performance at the convention was former Justice Tom Clark. "In my 22 years of attending these conventions," said Clark, "I've never seen anyone who has so quickly and effectively built a fire under this group as Burger." Within his own profession at least, the new Chief Justice clearly does not plan to be a defender of the status quo.

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