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Affirming our Commitment to the Rule of Law

The following statement was issued by Dean Laura Rosenbury on January 7, 2021. Dean Rosenbury has also joined nearly 160 deans from law schools nationwide in a statement posted here. 

Dear UF Law Community,

The rule of law has triumphed.  Despite a violent attack on the Capitol, Congress ultimately completed the counting of the Electoral College votes, and Vice President Mike Pence announced that President-elect Joe Biden won the presidency.  Yet the transfer of power was far from peaceful, threatening our great national experiment:  that we are a people ruled neither by strength nor standing but, instead, ruled by law.

I condemn yesterday’s assault on our democracy, and I ask each of you to remember the words inscribed on the wall in our Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom:  “No man is above the law.”   Our alumnus Chesterfield Smith uttered these words in his role as President of the American Bar Association at a press conference called to condemn President Nixon’s order to fire the Special Prosecutor of the Watergate Investigation.  Smith’s written statement went further, calling Nixon’s actions “an assault of wholly unprecedented dimensions on the very heart of the administration of justice.”  As Professor Mary Adkins writes in her recent biography of Smith, all of these words from October 21, 1973, were absolutely consequential:  “Until then, no mainstream organization had made such a bold statement” about Nixon’s attempts to thwart the rule of law.

If Smith were alive today, I imagine he would use those very same words – “an assault of wholly unprecedented dimensions on the very heart of the administration of justice” – to describe yesterday’s attack on the Capitol.  And he would join me in urging all of us to uphold our commitment to the rule of law.

The world needs lawyers and law students now more than ever.  We must affirm and bolster the rule of law by strengthening our institutions, promoting access to justice, and rebuilding our capacity for reasoned debate as well as for peaceful assembly and protest.  We must also continue to condemn the discriminatory applications of law enforcement that seemed to permit yesterday’s violence.

Much work remains, but I have hope because of our collective voices.  Our shared commitment to the rule of law both brings us together and provides us with a powerful tool for securing the future of our nation.  As we prepare to begin a new semester, may we all affirm our vital role in defending the Constitution, promoting the rule of law, and making our society more just.

LAR

Laura Ann Rosenbury
Dean and Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law

Published: January 7th, 2021

Category: News

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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.