Eventually they recognized her.
The viral officer.
The woman who slapped the Black Chief Judge live.
Some became defensive.
“You’re lecturing me?”
She answered:
“Yes.”
“Because I learned publicly what you still have a chance to learn privately.”
That worked more often than she expected.
The former Chief Judge learned about her work through a colleague.
He said nothing.
Just smiled.
His wife noticed.
“You’re pleased.”
“A little.”
“Careful.”
“I know.”
“You’ll start believing in redemption.”
“I believe in evidence.”
She laughed.
“Same man.”
When he turned seventy, he took senior status.
Fewer cases.
More time teaching.
His favorite seminar was not constitutional law.
It was judicial decision-making.
Bias.
Heuristic thinking.
Status.
Courtroom control.
He began every year with one question:
“What do judges have in common with police officers?”
Students offered obvious answers.
State authority.
Law.
Public responsibility.
He waited.
Then:
“People question us when they are already stressed.”
Another.
“We make decisions with incomplete information.”
Another.
“We can change people’s lives.”
He nodded.
Then:
“And?”
Eventually:
“People are afraid of us.”
“Yes.”
That was the one.
He told students:
“Fear can masquerade as respect.”
“If you spend long enough in authority, you may stop noticing the difference.”
He never told the slap story unless students asked.
They always did.
When they asked what he learned, he surprised them.
“I learned I am vulnerable to the same mistake.”
A student frowned.
“You slapped someone?”
Laughter.
“No.”
He smiled.
“I mean I learned how quickly authority turns questions into opposition.”
“As a judge, when a lawyer keeps pressing an argument I’ve already rejected, I feel irritation.”
“That irritation can become impatience.”
“Impatience can become humiliation.”
“Humiliation from the bench is also an abuse of power, even without physical force.”
The room quieted.
“Different magnitude.”
“Same temptation.”
One student asked:
“So what do you do?”
“Ask whether the question threatens the proceeding or only my ego.”
He smiled.
“It is annoying how often the answer is my ego.”