Jerry Summers
In the federal judicial history of the Easter District of Tennessee and its four divisions in Greenville, Knoxville, Winchester, and Chattanooga there has probably never been a judge who could evoke more favorable reactions from the legal community while alive and many criticisms when he was dead than the late Robert Love Taylor.
On August 8, 2023 we wrote a fairly comprehensive article in this publication styled “Judge Robert Love Taylor (1899-1987) Was Both Admired and Feared.”
In 2009 the late Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge Charles D. Susano published a collection of stories about the jurist in 220 pages by attorneys who had endured his wrath but also shared some of the humorous nature of the 5’4’’ descendant of one of the famous families in Tennessee’s history. (See “War of the Roses”- Taylor Brothers run against each other for governor in 1886 in Tennessee.)
In “The Best Stories of Bert Vincent- Sage of the Smokies” (Brazos Press- 1968) the late veteran reporter of the Knoxville Journal News Sentinel shares one of those Judge Taylor stories in a lighter vein in an example of the many unstamped whiskey (moonshine) cases that were prominent in East Tennessee until the price of sugar rose and marijuana became a cash crop that was easier to grow in the woods of East Tennessee:
“A fellow in overalls and with red dirt on his shoes was before Federal Jude Taylor pleading guilty to moonshining liquor. The judge put the usual question, as to whether he had anything to say before sentence was passed.
‘Well, your honor,’ he began, shifting from one foot to the other, ‘my wife’s goin’ to be pregnant in about two weeks…’
‘Your honor! If your honor please..!’ interrupted the defendant’s lawyer, jumping to his feet, ‘What my client means is that his wife’s to be confined in about two weeks!’
‘Well, quoth the judge, speaking slowly over his glasses, ‘in either case I think he ought to be there. Let the defendant go home and come back for sentence at next term of court.’”
(He presided over the racketeering and corruption cases involving the governors of Illinois and Maryland, the Clinton school desegregation contempt cases and the initial environmental cases involving the small snail darter species against the Tennessee Valley Authority, wherein young local attorney Hank Hill and other parties sought an injunction to stop the construction of the Tellico Dan which was ultimately decided by the United States Supreme Court.)
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You can reach Jerry Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com