Word: heflin
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Heflin, 55, is a strapping giant of a man, but he conspicuously avoids throwing his weight around. His background might well have produced a dyed-in-the-cot-ton supporter of the status quo instead of a reformer. Heflins have been in the state for six generations; the judge's late uncle, Cotton Tom Heflin, a populist turned black-baiting U.S. Senator (1920-31), was drummed out of the Democratic Party in 1928 for attacking Presidential Nominee Al Smith as "the Roman candidate." Young Howell went to Birmingham Southern College, served as a Marine officer in World...
Stepping Down. A successful trial and personal injury practice led Heflin to the presidency of the Alabama bar in 1965, and he turned that social club into a lobby for reform. In 1970, when an archsegregationist became the top candidate for chief justice, Heflin decided to take him on. "There was a feeling someone else ought to run," he recalls mildly. He won by a 2-to-l margin. And while the Heflin court has hardly become the most liberal in the country, one local civil rights lawyer says that as of now, "I'd rather take my chances...
...chief justice's achievements have stirred some resentment. Gripes longtime Court Clerk Fred Posey: "I don't need the Great White Father Heflin telling me how to run things." But Steve Suitts, state director of the American Civil Liberties Union, is closer to general Alabama sentiment: "Judge Heflin is one of the few people in this state about whom my grandmother, my mother and I all agree." Heflin has chosen to step down from office when his term expires in January, and many expect him to run for Governor or the U.S. Senate within the next few years...
Meanwhile, he continues with his innovations. This fall, to increase public understanding of the law, he will convene the supreme court in two high schools and hear actual cases. Back in Montgomery, Heflin plans to let TV cameras into his courtroom...
Last month Heflin became chairman of the Conference of Chief Justices. Naturally, he will spend much of his year in office spreading the word to the rest of the U.S. about the lessons in court reform it can learn from Alabama...