Judge Bruce Selya, one of Rhode Island’s longest-serving judges, died last week at the age of 90.
Attorney Karen Ellsworth, a former court reporter for the Providence Journal, covered many federal cases presided over by Judge Selya. She joined morning host Luis Hernandez to reflect on the judge’s life and legacy.
TRANSCRIPT:
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Luis Hernandez: What set Judge Selya apart as a judge? What’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Karen Ellsworth: He was really quick. You didn’t have to explain anything to him twice. He got it immediately. He was really, really smart. The other thing that I remember about him is that he was very self-effacing. He was the first one to laugh at himself when he made an error. He was also very thoughtful. He was always concerned about other people, including people who appeared before him in his courtroom and outside his courtroom as well.
Hernandez: How did he build his unique judicial writing style, and why did he use such an expansive vocabulary?
Ellsworth: I think he just liked words. I think he liked to write and he wanted his written opinions to be as colorful as possible so that people would not get bored reading them. I think that’s a laudable goal. I always try to do that when I write briefs, and he did that when he wrote his opinions.
Hernandez: You think about the judges we’ve had in this state, and I’m wondering what role Judge Selya played within the community of judges and lawyers and other people involved in the courts in Rhode Island?
Ellsworth: I think most people looked up to him. I don’t think he had as much exposure as the Superior Court judges would have, but I think he was extremely well respected, not only among other judges but among lawyers as well.
Hernandez: Was it true that one of his mentees was U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson?
Ellsworth: Yeah, she was. She clerked for him.
Hernandez: Tell us about that, the effect that it had working together.
Ellsworth: I haven’t read her book, but I believe that she said that he was a great influence on her, particularly in the way that he wrote; that decisions should be grammatically correct, precise, well-written and interesting.
Hernandez: What do you think were one or two of his most memorable and significant cases? What jumps out for you?
Ellsworth: One of the first ones that he handled after he became a judge. He was sworn in in, I believe, the middle of or late 1982. He had a case involving a dispute between Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci and his public works director, and they finally settled it. It was a civil rights case, so there were lawyer’s fees involved. They agreed on what the lawyer’s fee should be. Judge Selya said that while he was reviewing the file, he searched for an appropriate literary parallel to the situation. I’m reading now from a story that I wrote about this case in 1982. This is the first time I’ve seen it since I wrote it.
“‘The Power and the Glory’ came to mind as did ‘The Last Hurrah,’” he said. But the work he finally decided best fitted the case was a Dr. Seuss children’s classic, holding up a copy he received Tuesday as a Christmas gift. The judge then read the appropriate passage in which the cat opens the box containing two things “which ran about with big bumps, jumps and kicks, and with hoops and hops and big thumps and all kinds of bad tricks.” The pictures of the two things, the judge noted, are reminiscent of a couple of public figures.
He continued, “Then I let down my net, it came down with a plop, and I had them at last, those two things had to stop. Then I said to the cat, now you do as I say, you pick up those things and you take them away. ‘Oh dear,’ said the cat, ‘you did not like our game. Oh dear. What a shame. What a shame. What a shame.’” And Selya concluded, “If you gentlemen could relay to the powers that be that the federal court does not particularly appreciate their game, it would be a happy new year for all of us.”
That’s pretty typical of Judge Selya. He would never pass up the opportunity to make a literary analogy or use a big word that nobody else understands.
Hernandez: You know, you think about the courts today. They’re becoming very polarized, especially the U.S. Supreme Court. What meaning does Judge Selya hold for us today? What do you think he represents for judgeship today?
Ellsworth: Well, he was very fair. I know that that’s an overused word. What I mean is that I think when he was first appointed, a lot of people assumed that he would be issuing Republican opinions because he was a Republican, but I don’t think he did that. He was very unpredictable. He would hear a case and I don’t think it was easy for anyone to predict exactly what he was going to do with it. Sometimes he would issue a ruling that some people found liberal and sometimes he would issue a ruling that some people found conservative. I think the reason for that is that he made the decision based on the evidence in law and not on how he felt about the case.
Hernandez: We’ve got so much to look at as to his career, but tell us about Judge Selya as a person when he was away from the bench.
Ellsworth: In the summer of 1983, right after I took the bar exam, I had to have emergency eye surgery. It was quite serious, and I was out of work for several weeks. I got a lot of get-well cards from people that I regularly covered, including some people at the federal courthouse, but from Judge Selya I received a poem. I’m sure that he said to himself, “Well, you know, I’m just not going to send her one of those dumb get well cards that everybody else sends. I’m going to be creative.” So he wrote a poem. I don’t remember exactly what it said, but I remember that it was very funny and it was very well written.
I was at home laying in bed, doing nothing, very bored, so I said to myself, “Well, why don’t you send them a poem back?” So I did, and that launched an exchange. I think we exchanged two or three rounds of silly poems, but that was very characteristic of him. Not only was he quick and smart and creative, but he was also very considerate of other people. He was sitting there with everything else that he had to worry about and everything else he had to do, thinking to himself, “Gee, she just had this eye surgery, and she must be really bored. I think I’ll send her a poem.” That was Judge Selya.
Hernandez: After you heard about his passing, what was the first thing that was going to your mind? I’m just wondering what else you’d like to add about his life.
Ellsworth: I’m sorry that I never had another opportunity to speak to him. I had a great deal of respect for him, and I also liked him. He was a very likable, interesting person who had an extraordinarily successful career as a judge. At the end, he was widely respected across the country, not just in New England. So I wish I had had an opportunity to see him again, but I will always remember him as being not only an excellent judge, but an excellent person, too.
This interview was reported by The Public’s Radio.
