A SENSE OF JUSTICE: JUDGE GILBERT S. MERRITT AND HIS TIMES

The old saying goes that “a judge is just a lawyer who has a politician for a friend.” Like with any good cliché, there’s at least a kernel of truth to that statement. You can see that kernel and more in A Sense of Justice, Keel Hunt’s new biography of the late Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Gilbert S. Merritt Jr.

Mr. Hunt, whose previous books have chronicled Tennessee’s political history,1 provides a fascinating look at just how politically connected Judge Merritt was prior to taking the bench. What might surprise readers less familiar with Tennessee’s political history is that Judge Merritt was a major player in Tennessee’s Democratic Party in the 1960s and 70s. Mr. Hunt’s book serves as a reminder that Tennessee was not always a deep red state, but a purple state where, until fairly recently, Democrats competed in and often won state-wide elections. Judge Merritt was a New Frontier Democrat involved in several progressive Democratic campaigns until he eventually served as the state finance chairman for Jimmy Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign. The next year, President Carter would appoint Judge Merritt to the Sixth Circuit.

While Judge Merritt’s political connections put him in the right place at the right time to be appointed to a federal judgeship, he was also immensely qualified for the job. Looking at Judge Merritt’s early legal career, he would best be described as a wunderkind. Between graduating from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1960 and his appointment in 1977, Judge Merritt had several stints in private practice in Nashville, served as associate director of the inaugural Department of Law for the then newly formed Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, was a law professor, and was appointed the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. In all these roles, Judge Merritt worked to open doors for women and Black lawyers at a time when they were systemically kept out of the profession.

As interesting as the portions of the book dealing with Judge Merritt’s political connections and early legal career are, the most intriguing part of the book for attorneys is the discussion of Judge Merritt’s judicial career. Given the cloistered nature of their duties, the inner workings of an appellate judge’s chambers are mysterious even for attorneys. But Mr. Hunt deftly describes how Judge Merritt’s chambers operated. Mr. Hunt gives readers a look at each part of this close-knit community from Judge Merritt’s long-time office manager and his law clerks2 to his fellow Sixth Circuit judges. Mr. Hunt does an excellent job of depicting the collegial and collaborative environment of an appellate judge’s chambers, so much so that I found myself nostalgic for my days as a law clerk after reading those chapters.

Judge Merritt’s story is at the center of all the history and all the behind-the-scenes glimpses into political campaigns and judicial chambers in Mr. Hunt’s book. By the end of the book, you can see how Judge Merritt’s background, the heartbreaking personal tragedies he had to overcome, his status as a political insider, his public policy work, and his years on the bench all combined to make him a jurist with a reputation as the model of collegiality and judicial temperament. When I finished Mr. Hunt’s book, I was left regretting that I never had the chance to meet Judge Merritt prior to his death in 2022. And that, I suppose, is the highest praise one can give to a biography.

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By: Thomas H. Dickenson Hodges, Doughty & Carson