Taylor’s Former Clerk Has Differing View of the Judge

I read with a sense of unfairness Donald Paine’s May book review, so filled with criticism of Judge Robert L. Taylor (May 2009 Tenn. Bar Journal). I have not read the book Remembering United States District Judge Robert L. Taylor, nor judging by the tone of the book review am I inclined to purchase it. Let me just say that my memory of Judge Taylor from my two-year judicial clerkship was not that of a judge who needed to be reminded of Canon 3 of the Code of Judicial Conduct, as Mr. Paine demeaningly suggests. And I have to wonder why Chief Justice Warren Burger twice turned to a judge “not endowed with a judicial temperament,” as Mr. Paine puts it, to handle complex and difficult criminal trials with national implications. I am referring to Judge Taylor’s appointments to try Federal Judge Otto Kerner in Illinois and Governor Marvin Mandel in Maryland. Perhaps the Chief Justice did not know as much about judging as does Mr. Paine. He certainly had a higher opinion of Judge Taylor.