[msb-alumni] Re: Bernstein Pledges Fairness on Supreme Court
- From: "Marcia Moses" <mgmoses@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 16:19:37 -0500
BlankRichard can certainly afford a Braille display, lol.
Marcia
From: Steve
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2015 4:04 PM
To: msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [msb-alumni] Bernstein Pledges Fairness on Supreme Court
God, this makes me ill! So, he claims to be independent, but he needs an extra
full-time staff-member. He reads Brille but doesn't use it--Yeah man! I
understand it is bulky, has he ever heard of refreshable Braille?
And, counting steps; I think in forty-five years of independent travel, there
is only one area shere I counted steps.
Now, how many of you, even working for supposedly enlightened emplooyers would
have been offered a job if you needed a full-time assistant?
Bernstein pledges fairness on Supreme Court
Michigan's Supreme Court will convene this week to hear oral arguments with a
new jurist on the bench who made history the minute he was elected. Justice
Richard Bernstein says he already feels the weight of legacy as the state's
first blind justice. But it's a legacy he embraces, because his greatest hope
other than being a fair jurist for the people of Michigan is that his position
opens doors for other people with disabilities in Michigan. "I genuinely
believe as a blind person I was created this way for a reason," he says. "It's
not easy. It's incredibly challenging, incredibly difficult. But at the same
time, it makes your life incredibly fulfilling. If I hadn't been born blind, I
would not have lived my life with the same sense of mission and focus and
purpose. Lansing State Journal Columnist Louise Knott Ahern spent several hours
with new Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein on his first official day on
the job. It's a few days after the New Year, and Richard Bernstein is sitting
at the conference table inside his chambers at the Michigan Hall of Justice ,
his new office for the next eight years. Most of the building is empty, a
post-holiday lull still hanging over the marble columns and mahogany desks. Not
inside his office, though. His staff has been working nearly every day since he
raised his right hand on Jan. 1 and took the oath of office on the steps of the
Capitol. His only complaint so far is the quiet. In his old office -- where he
worked cases on behalf of people with disabilities alongside his famous family
of attorneys at The Law Offices of Sam Bernstein -- he would have had 40 phone
calls by 11 a.m., he says. The phone hasn't rung once in his chambers. Maybe
it's just too soon after the holidays. But it's not too soon for him to be
working, he says, because starting over in a new job is a different proposition
for him than for most everybody else. It takes longer to get acclimated when
your orientation means counting the steps from room to room.. It's OK to ask
how he does it. He knows people wonder, even if they're afraid to come right
out and say it. People have wondered his entire life. They wondered when he
attended Northwestern University School of Law, every time he took his spot at
the starting line for one of his 18 marathons, when he sat down often by
himself at a table in a courtroom without a single notebook. Every time, in
every instance, people would look at him and think, how is this going to work?
He'd rather people ask than just assume it can't be done. If the world can see
a blind man sitting on the Supreme Court, he says, then maybe it won't seem so
farfetched for a restaurant owner or an office manager to think about filling
their next vacancies with a blind candidate or a deaf candidate or a candidate
with some other disability. "Disabled people know what we can do," he says. "We
just have to be given a chance. I'm a blind person who is a Michigan Supreme
Court justice. Is it challenging and hard? Absolutely. But am I going to get
this job done and do it well? Absolutely. The Supreme Court has made a few
accommodations for Bernstein and will continue to do so as needed, said Justice
Bridget Mary McCormack, who was assigned as Bernstein's unofficial mentor in
the court. His attitude is there are some things they will simply have to
figure out as they go along, she said. Like, for example, the conference room.
That's where most of the work of the Supreme Court is done, where justices
gather for hours to discuss cases. They're used to a certain routine, McCormack
said. She and most of the other justices come in with multiple devices laptops
and tablets alongside reams of notes to refer back to during discussion.
Bernstein will have none of that. They're exploring possible adaptive
technologies, but they have to see how things go first. "There are things we'll
have to do differently," said McCormack. "If we're all looking at an agenda, we
can't just say, 'OK, let's go to item number two. He's not going to know what
that is. So, instead, we're going to have to review for him, 'This is the case
of the People vs. Smith.' He requested and was granted one special
accommodation an additional staff member. Justices are usually allotted five
staff members. Bernstein will have a sixth -- his long-time personal aide, Tim
MacLean. MacLean has been with Bernstein for five years and does a little bit
of everything. He drives Bernstein, travels with him, helps him with countless
other tasks. Perhaps most importantly, MacLean reads to him. Michigan Supreme
Court Justice Richard Bernstein smiles while talking to others as he sits at
the bench inside the courtroom at the Hall of Justice on Monday, Jan. 5, 2015.
(Photo: Dave Wasinger/Lansing State Journal) Bernstein doesn't use braille. He
can read it. He knows it. But he doesn't use it in his work. It's too
cumbersome. A five-page legal document becomes 20 when translated into braille.
Computers and technology are great to a point, and there are many things
available for his use. But what works for him is this: MacLean reads to him,
and Bernstein memorizes. Everything. Actually, Bernstein says, it's more than
that. He calls it internalizing. It's not a matter of just knowing the words
but understanding them, how they all fit together, how they complement and
contradict, how they apply to other cases, other laws. "It blows my mind day in
and day out to work with him," MacLean said. "He is remarkable in his ability
to ingest material and remember it. Just as soon as I think I've found a
pattern about how long he needs to hear something to learn it, he surprises me.
Let's say we're on the fifth reading of a 40-page brief, I'll think he's going
to need to hear it again. He'll regurgitate it to me almost verbatim. They
average 15 hours a day of work. They started reviewing the current cases before
the court the day after the November election so he would be prepared for oral
arguments, which start Jan. 13. He commutes from his home in Birmingham to
Lansing every day, and a lot of reading and internalizing happens then, he
says. "I think he lives his life by one quote," MacLean said. "'To whom much
has been given, much is expected. He lives by that every day of his life. Which
is remarkable, because a lot of people would think that if I have a disability,
I haven't been given much. He sees it as, 'What can I do to make this world
better, to make my circumstance a beacon of light for other people? Lynn Seaks,
administrative specialist with the Michigan Supreme Court, helps Justice
Richard Bernstein put on his robe before entering the courtroom last week.
Bernstein, who is blind, was elected in November to serve an eight-year term.
(Photo: Dave Wasinger/Lansing State Journal) In 1998, as the end of law school
neared, Bernstein signed up for 65 interviews with visiting law firms. He
didn't really want to work for any of them. He had a job waiting for him at the
family firm, where he planned to open a public services division -- a luxury he
says he is thankful for every day of his life. But he requested the interviews
because he wanted the experience of being a blind man in the job market. To
feel what it was like to be passed over, even though he was qualified, because
it was probably just easier to not consider him for a job, he says. "How many
call backs do you think I got? He pauses to wait for an answer. Two? Five?
Twenty? "Zero. Not a single call back," he says. He wants to make one thing
clear. "My advocacy days are over," Bernstein says. "I am not here to advocate
or to legislate. I am here to interpret. I am here to be a rule of law judge.
To apply the facts to the law. But if his presence on the court can strip away
some of the mystery that surrounds what it means to be blind, to live blind, to
work blind, he'd be perfectly fine with that. "I'm desperately hoping someone
will look at my story and say, you know what? I'm going to hire a disabled
candidate," he says. "I hope they will realize, yes, they might have to make
some accommodations, but they are small. Modest. And if you are willing to do
that, you will get some of the best employees you could ever hope to have.
That's one of the most exciting things about this position, he says. "The
people of the State of Michigan gave me a job. Louise Knott Ahern is a
columnist at the Lansing State Journal. Follow her on Twitter: @weezwrites
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein sits at the bench inside the
courtroom at the Hall of Justice last week. Bernstein was elected in November
to serve an eight-year term on the court. He is the Michigan's first blind
Supreme Court justice. (Photo: Dave Wasinger/Lansing State Journal) About
Justice Richard Bernstein Attorney Richard Bernstein, 41, was elected to an
eight-year term on the Michigan Supreme Court in November, making him the
state's first blind justice and one of just three blind high court judges in
the nation. He was nominated by the Democratic party. He hails from a famous
legal family. His father is personal injury attorney Sam Bernstein, and
Bernstein has spent his legal career working in the family law firm in a public
services division he created. He graduated from Northwestern University School
of Law in 1999 and received his bachelor's degree from the University of
Michigan in 1996. Bernstein previously held elected office on the Wayne State
University Board of Governors.
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