|
Carleton
Harris was born December 31, 1909 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
When, at the age of thirteen, he knew he wanted to
pursue a career in law, he devoted the next decade
to preparing for it, dedicating his entire life to
the performance.
Harris received his
law degree in 1932 from Cumberland University in Lebanon,
Tennessee and shortly after his arrival home, announced
his candidacy for Jefferson County representative
in the Arkansas General Assembly. He became one of
the youngest members of the assembly at the age of
22. Harris served three terms as representative, becoming
Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in his last
term during the 1937 session. He then served as Assistant
Prosecuting Attorney of Jefferson County and worked
in civil practice until his entrance in the Marine
Corps in March of 1944. He was elected Prosecuting
Attorney for the Eleventh Judicial District when he
returned home again in 1946, although after only one
term, ran a successful campaign for the position of
Chancery and Probate Judge of the Fourth Chancery
District. Eight years later he was elected to the
position of Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme
Court in another successful election, overcoming such
opponents as Judge Guy Amsler and Judge Lee Ward.
He began his first term in 1957. By the time of his
retirement in January of 1980, Chief Justice Carleton
Harris had served longer than any other Chief Justice
in Arkansas or the United States.
As Chief Justice, Harris
was important in the implementation of significant
alterations to Arkansas' Judicial System. Two of the
more momentous modifications were the restructuring
of the judicial system and the establishment of the
Court of Appeals in 1978. In 1965, the Arkansas Supreme
Court gave new structure to the Arkansas court system
when it appointed the Chief Justice to become the
administrative head of the entire court system and
the administrative director of the Arkansas Judicial
Department as laid out in Act 496 of 1965. The second
noteworthy modification was Amendment 58 to the Arkansas
State Constitution, which created the Court of Appeals
(operational in 1979) to help alleviate the growing
work load of the Arkansas Supreme Court. This led
to more specific rules and regulations regarding procedures,
jurisdiction of the courts, and realignment of lower
court systems.
Over the course of his
23 years as Chief Justice, Harris not only effected
numerous changes to the Arkansas Court System, but
he also penned a phenomenal number of influential
articles and opinions (amounting to more than 870).
Some of his widely recognized opinions have been used
as the main documents in assorted Annotations of the
American Law Reports. He received various awards and
honors for his outstanding work and leadership, the
three most notable of which are the appointment as
President of the Arkansas Judicial Council by his
fellow jurists to serve from 1954-1955; the 1966 nomination
that made him the only Arkansan to serve as National
Chairman of the Conference of Chief Justices, an organization
of every Chief Justice from all 50 states and Puerto
Rico; and the 1974 "Outstanding Lawyer Award"
given to him by the Arkansas Bar Association, making
him the only judge to ever receive it. He was also
listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the South
and Southwest, and Men of Achievement. And of course,
his commitment to public service and citizenship never
wavered. He remains, as Justice John A. Fogleman wrote,
"one Arkansawyer who has improved the image of
our state."
Rather than list honors,
however, it expresses more to reveal the two accomplishments
of which Judge Harris was most proud. While Chancellor
in 1951, Judge Harris noted that many couples who
had had a divorce granted were returning to court
to ask that the divorce papers be changed so that
they could continue their marriage. This realization
led him to design a rule in which any couple that
had lived together at any time, for any length of
time, during the proceeding year could not receive
a divorce until thirty days after the suit had been
filed. This rule reduced the number of divorces in
Jefferson County by more than a hundred, and the rule
was so effective that the legislature decided to make
it a law. The second action, which Judge Harris considered
"the most thrilling moment of his political career,"
occurred when he was serving his third term as a representative
in the Arkansas General Assembly. He managed to get
a bill passed through the legislature that provided
for the removal of the tax on the seven "free-bridges"
of the state, along with a bill appropriating funds
to pay for the debt that the tax was covering. It
was a feat that many had tried unsuccessfully, but
Judge Harris later commented that he "learned
early in life that a man can do most anything if he
sets his heart to it and his cause is right."
Judge Harris was a remarkable
man, both as a person and in his career, and he is
most remembered for his compassion and love for people.
In fact, he noted before his death in December of
1980 that as Chief Justice, he missed the everyday
contact with people that he had as chancery and probate
judge. His close friends and relatives remember him
as a man who took into consideration the feelings
of the people around him and his dedication to the
public and community. As Justice John A. Fogleman
wrote, "I have never known a more dedicated,
conscientious public servant than Carleton Harris."
•
|
