Winners of Opperman, Justice, Devitt and Toni House Awards Announced

Article contributed by Beth Tigges, AJS Special Assignments Associate.

The Honorable Pascal Calogero, Jr., Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, is the winner of the Fourth Annual Dwight D. Opperman Award for Judicial Excellence. Chief Justice Calogero was chosen by a three-member panel: Judge Richard Cooch, Superior Court of Delaware; Judge Marc Amy, Louisiana Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; and last year’s Opperman winner Chief Justice Ronald George, California Supreme Court. The award is named for Dwight D. Opperman, former chairman and CEO of West Publishing Company.  Mr. Opperman currently serves on the AJS Board of Directors as a Distinguished Lifetime Director. AJS created the Opperman Award to honor a sitting state judge of a trial or appellate court who has had a career of distinguished judicial service. The award will be presented to Chief Justice Calogero on October 2 in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

The Honorable Carolyn Dineen King, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge for the Fifth Circuit, has been selected as the 2007 recipient of the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award.  King was chosen by a three-member panel chaired by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; other members of the panel were Chief Judge Deanell Reece Tacha, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit; and Judge Gerard E. Lynch, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Devitt Award is named for the late Edward J. Devitt, longtime chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.  The award, made annually, honors Article III judges whose careers have been exemplary, measured by their significant contributions to the administration of justice, the advancement of the rule of law, and the improvement of society as a whole.  It is administered by AJS with funding provided by the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation, Minneapolis.  The award will be presented to Judge King in Houston, Texas, on September 20. 

The AJS Board of Directors has selected Thomas R. Phillips, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas and a partner at Baker Botts LLP, to be the recipient of the 2007 Justice Award, the Society’s highest honor. The AJS Justice Award is given annually to an individual who has made significant contributions to improving the administration of justice nationally. The award dinner and ceremony will be held in Houston, Texas, on November 15. Please contact the AJS office if you would like more information or to purchase tickets to this event.  

A team of Chicago Tribune journalists has been selected to receive the 2007 American Judicature Society’s Toni House Journalism Award.  The team of journalists was chosen for their investigative work making an important contribution to improving the fairness and integrity of the criminal justice system. The Toni House Award winners were chosen by a three-member panel: Dean Lawrence K. Hellman, Oklahoma City University School of Law; Ms. Mary Wechsler, Wechsler Becker LLP; and last year’s Toni House Award winner Jerry Mitchell, The Clarion-Ledger. The award is named after the late U.S. Supreme Court public information officer Toni House. It honors outstanding journalism that enhances public understanding of the courts and/or contributes to the improvement of the administration of justice. The award will be presented to the Chicago Tribune team at a ceremony later this year in Chicago.