As the election of 2024 approaches, the public perception of our judicial branch continues to suffer declines in areas of trust and prestige. The most common complaint voiced was that the administration of justice is unequal and unbalanced.

There are many causes for the malaise of justice that afflicts much of the country but the resulting lack of respect for the court, court personnel, and court procedures bodes ill for a nation based on the rule of law.

Michel Montaigne was one of the world’s greatest minds and author of the premise that law is not a derivative of divine nature, but an entirely human construct. He maintained that absolute truth could never be ascertained; all human judgments should be tempered by restraint.

This concept enlivened humanism and the enlightenment and influenced our Founders. Law is not meant to be static because humanity is never static; the mind always seeks new territory to expand and evolution is our inescapable fate.

To take advantage of the new sciences of the mind, advances in human behavior analysis, and structural changes in society, a robust, trustworthy, and accepted system of laws and applications are necessary. Without them, society flounders in arbitrariness; precisely what the Founders sought to avoid because that circumstance easily leads to rule by the few and not the many.

To encourage each citizen to feel a part of the justice system has been an abiding aspiration since I found my first set of law codes at age eleven. Those who practice the law and have access to it have a responsibility to ensure that access is open to everyone regardless of means.

We can adapt our courts to improve access the way they have in the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries whose efforts should be examined to glean their best elements. Access to courts is a right, yet many middle-class persons are unable to exercise that right. This independent campaign is my way to ameliorate any wrinkles in the fabric of justice and contribute to finding solutions to some of our most intractable problems surrounding access.

The playwrights, Lawrence and Lee, wrote a play about a fictional first female justice on the Supreme Court called “First Monday in October.” The fictional lead character tells her male colleagues the ‘sterileness’ of their court stemmed from its inability to ‘touch flesh,’ to feel as everyday people feel.

Without the human touch, people can feel denied, angry, and resentful of justice. Obedience to the law is always voluntary. Judges decide but they must also teach. I hope to bring a synthesis of these values together to accomplish the goal of making courts a model for others to follow.

Please join me in this work. Your vote in support of this ideal is much appreciated.