Four judges with experience in deciding controversial cases ranging from right-to-die to teaching “intelligent design” led an ABA Midyear Meeting program on the difficulties of deciding “hot” cases in the public eye. Federal district court judges John E. Jones III of Williamsport, Penn., James D. Whittemore of Tampa, and Myron Thompson of Montgomery, Ala., and Federal Court of Appeals Judge Rosemary Barkett of Miami were on a panel sponsored by the ABA Judicial Division and moderated by Manny Medrano, a legal affairs correspondent for ABC News.

In “Eye of the Storm: Deciding Controversial Cases,” Thompson discussed his work on the Ten Commandments’ case in Alabama in which he had to determine how to remove the 2.5-ton display of the Ten Commandments from a state building “without lifting a federal finger.” Barkett discussed a series of controversial issues on which she has ruled, and Whittemore outlined his involvement in the Terry Schiavo right-to-die case. Jones ruled in the Pennsylvania intelligent design case.

Comments were sometimes lighthearted despite the seriousness of the issue at hand. Jones recounted how he, upon hearing of the intelligent design case, had mused on the meaning of intelligent design and wondered which judge would be assigned the case. Thompson, in a quiet voice, told of his fear for his children and then, in a lighter tone, talked about the support from his friends and other judges.

Also highlighted during the panel discussion was the role of reporters in informing the public, and how the threat to the judiciary was not only to individual judges in specific cases but also to the institution as a whole. Barkett stated that sometimes judges are attacked because of cases, other times they are simply used as political pawns in an attack on the independence of the judiciary.