The Judge Intuitive: The Life and Judicial Philosophy of Joseph C. Hutcheson, Jr.
![handle is hein.journals/stexlr39 and id is 917 raw text is: THE JUDGE INTUITIVE:
THE LIFE AND JUDICIAL PHILOSOPHY OF
JOSEPH C. HUTCHESON, JR.*
CHARLES L. ZELDEN**
John R. Brown, who sat with Judge Joseph C. Hutcheson, Jr. on
the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, once noted that Hutcheson, the
Judge, cannot be divorced from Hutcheson, the man .... What he
does as a judge, what he has done for the law, are the product of this
total and unique personality.1 Variously called a martinet and an
old-time southern hot-head, Hutcheson was a man of forthright and
unconventional outlook whose quick, combative, and confident
personality is recalled by those who knew him with awe, respect and
fear twenty-five years after his death.' Brown, who considered
Hutcheson a friend, still described the Judge as haughty, all the way
irascible, domineering.... [a] superior intellect who had a quick
mind... [and was] quick to order people around him in a very
demanding sort of way.3 Hutcheson, he went on to say, was a man
who despised somebody who simply agreed with him. If you
disagreed with him, you'd better tell him so.' A newspaperman who
* Portions of this article were previously published in 11 HOUS. REv. 67 (1989).
The South Texas Law Review would like to thank the Houston Review for its reprint
permission.
** Charles L. Zelden (A.B. Washington University, 1985; M.A. Washington
University, 1985; Ph.D. Rice University, 1991) is an assistant professor of Liberal Arts and
History at Nova Southeastern University's Farquhar Center for Undergraduate Studies.
He is the author of JUSTICE LIES IN THE DISTRICT: THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT
COURT, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS, 1902-1960. Professor Zelden is currently
working on a full length biography of Judge Hutcheson as well as a history of the federal
district courts and civil rights from Brown to the present.
1. John R. Brown, Hail to the Chief- Hutcheson, the Judge, 38 TEx. L. REv. 140, 140
(1960).
2. See Walter P. Armstrong, Joseph C. Hutcheson, Jr.: Chief Judge, Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals, 35 A.B.A. J. 546,547-48 (1949).
3. Interview with John R. Brown, Justice for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
(Feb. 16, 1988).
4. Id.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/stexlr39&div=43&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Judge Intuitive: The Life and Judicial Philosophy of Joseph C. Hutcheson, Jr.
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