Victor introduced the Honorable Ed Smith as this morning’s speaker. Judge Smith is a Federal District Judge with his Chambers in Easton. Prior to his federal judgeship, he was a Judge of the Northampton County Court and a U.S. Navy JAG Judge were he spent several tours of duty in Iraq. Judge Smith started out by saying the federal judges must focus on “staying in the lines” when it comes to the law and the decisions they make. Judges must be apolitical but in the five years he has been on the federal bench he had seen many changes in the winds of our government. Elections create change in government and those in power can make the changes to the Supreme Court, the Circuit Courts and the District Courts by their appointments (President) and confirmations (Senate) which should not make any difference since the judges should not be political but they do have views based on their ideology which can have a large impact on the interpretation of the law. Even with all these issues, the judges must deal with they must stay within the lines to maintain their legitimacy, integrity and the confidence of the citizens of the United States. Sometimes it is hard to tell where the boundary of the line is. The Judge quoted Justice Scalia “It can be hard defined.” The [It] in this case is the law. The Judge said that it should be pretty simple, all you have to do is read [It], read the statute or the Constitution and make the interception. Things change even in the law. As an example, he cited the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This statute prohibited discrimination based on sex. In 1964 and since then this Act has been pretty simple to interpret but the Supreme will be hearing cases based on this law to make a ruling based on trans-gender and the use of bathrooms. Things keep changing.
Judge Smith used the example of the logo of Lehigh County and the challenge of some to remove the cross from the logo. The Judge rule against the challenge. He referenced a case in Maryland where a World War I memorial was built by the American Legion and overtime it was taken over by a local government. A group challenged the fact that a government can not have a memorial with a cross. The Federal District Judge ruled the memorial could stay. The Circuit Court reversed the District Court and said it must be taken down. The Supreme Court decided to review the case and overturned the Circuit Court ruling on a 7-2 vote.