As Retired U.S. Judges, We’re Not Used to Speaking Out. But We Cannot Be Silent

Michael Donnelly, a former Ohio Supreme Court justice and of counsel in the Vorys Cleveland office, co-authored an article for The Guardian about the “Justice in Motion” bus tour, which took 30 bipartisan judges, lawyers and advocates across Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan to engage citizens in conversations about judicial independence, public confidence in the courts and the importance of preserving the rule of law.

In the article, Donnelly and Robert Orr — a retired justice from the Supreme Court of North Carolina — explain the purpose for the bus tour, which is to promote judicial independence “as a protection against arbitrary power.”  The pair argue for the importance of American judges avoiding partiality in the face of fractious politics, citing recent historical context in Poland, where judges marched in the street to protest attempts by the ruling government to strongarm the judiciary.

Read the full article on The Guardian’s website (subscription may be required).