In a lecture reflecting on his 18-year career as a federal judge, Thomas Penfield Jackson '58, spoke on several cases which have shaped his justice experiences -- including the high profile Microsoft anti-trust suit -- in Cook Auditorium yesterday afternoon.
Jackson was careful to avoid being too blunt about his feelings toward the Microsoft case, since it is still pending before an appellate court.
He said that he "never aspired to become a federal regulator of industry" and emphasized that he did everything possible to bring about a settlement between Microsoft and the government.
He said that he would have preferred to see the market correct the situation, rather than through a "structural remedy," but unfortunately, the situation called for "forcible application of judicial intervention."
The Microsoft case began in May 1998, when the Department of Justice filed suit against Microsoft for breaching a consent decree approved by the federal court several years before. According to the Department of Justice, packaging an Internet browser as part of the Windows operating system violated the court decree.
Jackson also presided over the trial of Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry.
According to Jackson, the long trial often wore on him emotionally and raised controversial racial and political questions. The verdict was not reached easily; while all the jurors acquitted Barry on one count and convicted him on another, the jurors hung 8-4 on all other counts.
Jackson gave Barry the maximum verdict of six months. While some criticized his decision, Jackson said that he would not be more lenient now, citing Barry's visibility as a leader and obligations as a role model.
He was forced to sequester jurors, the only time he has done so.
In an especially emotional moment, a juror begged Jackson to let her attend a friend's wedding. Jackson agreed, but she would have to be accompanied by federal marshals and pay the marshals herself. She agreed.
Jackson's first high-profile case was the trial of former Reagan White House Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver. When Congress appointed an independent counsel to investigate Deaver for lobbying, Deaver challenged the independent-counsel laws, claiming that they were unconstitutional.
Deaver was ultimately found guilty of perjuring himself before Congress, and the independent counsel statute was upheld. Jackson admitted, though, that he finds its constitutionality questionable even now.
Jackson faced his first skirmishes with the press during the Deaver trial. Deaver's attorneys raised his alcoholism as an issue during early hearings, so the questionnaires given to prospective jurors asked about their feelings towards alcohol abuse. Jackson promised that this information would be kept confidential.
The press sued under the Freedom of Information Act for access to the questionnaires. An appellate court forced Jackson to make the questionnaires public. In order to keep his promise, Jackson had to dismiss 200 prospective jurors, and delay the trial for three months while finding a new panel of possible jurors.
Sentencing Deaver proved no less difficult, as Deaver's flashy lifestyle made him unpopular with the public. However, Jackson said that he did not see the need for Deaver to serve a prison term and instead sentenced him to pay a monetary fine and perform long hours of community service.
Deaver worked for several years at a Washington area homeless shelter. He became a popular counselor there. A friend told Jackson that, at the homeless shelter, residents pray to express their gratitude for Deaver, and to Jackson for bringing Deaver to them as well.
However, according to Jackson, it is some of his lesser-known cases that have been most personally satisfying.
In fall of 1985, the son of a terminally ill patient complained to him about his mother's treatment. She wanted to die at home, rather than continue to suffer hooked up to a respirator, but federal law did not permit her doctors to suspend a treatment they had already begun.
No precedent existed for challenging such a law. Jackson turned to Roe v. Wade to support the patient's desire for control over her own body.
Ultimately, Jackson issued a court order forcing the woman's doctors to obey her wishes to be taken off the respirator.
On another occasion, the British children of American servicemen stationed abroad during World War II filed suit asking the U.S. Department of Defense for their fathers' addresses. The department refused, saying that honoring the request would violate the fathers' privacies.
Jackson ruled that the government needed to produce affidavits from each of the fathers stating that they did not wish for contact from their children. The government did not, and Jackson said that he is proud of his role uniting these families.
Students and faculty offered positive comments about the lecture.
Daniel Webster Legal Society President Jordyne Wu '03 said that she was delighted by "the sarcasm and wit which the media has always loved and feared."
Michael Perry '03 said that he enjoyed hearing about Jackson's "interesting string of experiences."
Philosophy Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong expressed similar feelings stating that Jackson did a "wonderful job conveying the variety of cases which federal judges face."
