Isolation in the Judicial Career (cont)
Transmuting
Isolation
Isolation is not going to be removed from the judicial career. The strictures
of the Code are the bulwark of judicial independence. Both heavy workloads
and isolation will remain major elements of the judicial career. Indeed,
under the pressures of a high-profile trial, a judge can find strength
not only in his friends and family, but also in his years of monastic
isolation. One state judge expressed it thus: “You have to accept
isolation. Ultimately it will serve you well when your independence
is seriously threatened. You must cultivate your distance in order to
make the hardest decisions of your life when your own life and that
of your family is under threat because of a decision you’ve handed
down.”
A judge does not have to undergo a personality change in order to reduce
the effects of unavoidable isolation upon his quality of life and collegiality.
It also is not necessary to test the borders of the Code of Judicial
Conduct. As Chief Judge Deanell Tacha of the United States Court of
Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has written: “In fact, the laws,
regulations, and codes governing the conduct of judges leave a wide
range of civic, philanthropic, and educational activities open for participation
by judges. Indeed, judges are freer to interact with the other two branches
of government than they realize.”
A prescription for transmuting isolation into a healthy life and judicial
career involves these elements:
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Aggressively holding on to old and childhood friends. We all need witnesses to our stages of life.
-
Maintaining a close support circle of relatives and friends who are not competitive or envious, and with whom one can engage in robust and honest mutual appraisal and dialogue.
-
Taking initiative to engage in activities totally removed from the legal and judicial world, and to form friendships with some of the people you will meet this way.
-
Learning the basics of stress management techniques so that you can work efficiently but not pay too high a price for it.
- Periodically serving as a mentor to a new judge, so that you can teach by example most of these points.
Judicial isolation is an
inherent part of the role judges must play in society. It can seriously
diminish a judge’s intellectual and social abilities. By understanding
and actively employing the measures recommended, a judge can transmute
isolation into a rewarding resource.
See the Winter
2000 Court Review for the complete article, including “The
Isolation Process” and “The Role of Personality Traits.”