Excerpts from Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society's 2025 Newsletter

We are posting selected excerpts from The Connecticut Supreme Court History, 2025, Volume XVI.  The main purpose of the issue  is a series of articles drawn from a tribute held in the Connecticut Supreme Court on October 21, 2024. The tribute honored retired Chief Justice A. Peters, who passed away in 2024. Each speaker recognized the outstanding career of the Chief Justice and her massive contribution to Connecticut's body of law. Associate Justice Gregory D' Auria authored an introduction to the tributes, and former Connecticut Supreme Court Justice and Shipman partner Joette Katz added her remarks, excerpted here by permission from the Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society.

Memorial Tribute to Chief Justice Ellen A. Peters

Introduction by Hon. Gregory T. D'Auria, Associate Justice, Connecticut Supreme Court

On April 17, 2024, Chief Justice Ellen Ash Peters passed away at the age of 94.

Chief Justice Peters was a legend by anyone's definition of that word, and she had as much of an impact on Connecticut's legal landscape as anyone in our state's history. Her influence on the law did not stop at Connecticut's borders. It was therefore entirely fitting for the Connecticut Supreme Court to hold an event that marked her career as a judge, and also fitting for the Connecticut Supreme Court History Journal to devote an entire issue to her legacy. Included in this issue are articles that capture the remarks delivered by the speakers who addre'ssed a packed courtroom in Hartford on October 21, 2024, as the Court honored Chief Justice Peters. The reflections of Michael Besso - attorney, scholar and former Peters law clerk - on the former Chief's legacy round out this volume.

The occasion was months in the planning. Immediately after the Chief's passing, I was in communication with Jim Peters, the youngest of her children and the final speaker, to begin to plan this event. The four of her former law clerks who are now judges (Sheila Huddleston, Dan Klau, Tory Chavey, and me) soon gathered to discuss what the program should consist of, and with the efforts of the Judicial Branch's External Affairs Division, we assembled a slate of speakers of which we are very proud.¹

After a few words of welcome from newly installed Chief Justice Raheem Mullins, who had only been approved for an interim appointment weeks before the event, the program proceeded for about 90 minutes. First, for those in attendance and the viewing public, Attorney Wesley Horton placed Chief Justice Peters into historical perspective. It is well known that Gov. Ella Grasso appointed Ellen Ash Peters to the Supreme Court in 1978 as our first female justice. Only a few years later, after the retirement of Chief Justice John A. Speziale, Gov. William O'Neill made her our first female Chief Justice in 1984. But those firsts hardly begin to describe the mark that Justice Peters immediately made upon her arrival on the Connecticut Supreme Court, or to measure the impact she had on the law during the more than twenty years that she served on the court, retiring in 2000 at the constitutionally required age of seventy.

By the time of the October 2024 event, Attorney Horton had been arguing cases before the Connecticut Supreme Court for over fifty years and had appeared before Chief Justice Peters scores of times both in the Supreme Court and in the Appellate Court, where she served as a judge trial referee for approximately 14 years after retiring from the Supreme Court. Attorney Horton served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Charles House right after graduating from law school, and has devoted his entire career not only to appearing before the Connecticut Supreme Court, but to writing extensively about the Court, both as presently constituted as well as throughout our state's history.² Appropriately, Attorney Horton is the first – and after nearly twenty years, still the only – President of the Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society. As only he can, Wes treated the audience to his perspectives on cases that made the Chief Justice's tenure on the Court so impactful, as well as how her arrival from Yale Law School in 1978 changed how lawyers presented arguments before the Court.

After Attorney Horton's remarks, former Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Joette Katz spoke. Before becoming a member of the Supreme Court, Justice Katz had appeared before Chief Justice Peters many times as one of the state's many talented public defenders. In 1989, she left her position as the head of Legal Services for the Office of the Chief Public Defender, which made her the Public Defender's principal appellate advocate, when Governor William O'Neill appointed her to the superior court. A few short years later, in 1992, Governor Lowell Weicker appointed Katz to the Supreme Court at the age of 39 – at the time the youngest justice ever to sit on the Court until Governor Dannel Malloy appointed then-Justice Raheem Mullins to the Court in 2017.

Justice Katz was the second female justice to serve on the Connecticut Supreme Court and by the time she arrived, Justice Peters had been on the court for 14 years, 8 as Chief Justice. She would serve approximately 8 more years on the court as Justice Katz' colleague-4 more years as Chief, and another 4 years as a senior justice on the Court, a semi-retired status in our state that permitted her to continue serving on the Court with a reduced caseload. Justice Katz treated those gathered to stories and insights about what it was like to be the second female justice in our state's history, following Chief Justice Peters, who quickly became a mentor, colleague, and friend.

Justice Katz was followed by retired Supreme Court Justice Richard N. Palmer whom Governor Weicker appointed to the court in 1993. Like Justice Peters 15 years before him, Justice Palmer arrived at the court with no previous judicial experience. Although appointing non-judges to positions on the federal courts of appeals is rather commonplace, and although the presently constituted state Supreme Court has three judges with no previous judicial service (Andrew J. McDonald, myself, and Nora R. Dannehy), Justice Peters and Palmer were a rarity in their time. With his comments, Justice Palmer built upon those of Justice Katz, providing us with a window into not only Justice Peters' keen legal mind, but her generosity of spirit as a Chief Justice and colleague.

Following Justice Palmer, we heard from retired Chief Justice Chase Rogers. Chief Justice Rogers became only the state's second female Chief Justice, appointed to that office by Governor M. Jodi Rell in 2007. Chief Justice Rogers described for the audience the very warm relationship she enjoyed with the first woman Chief Justice in the state's history. As a young lawyer practicing employment law, Attorney Chase Rogers had been awed by the impact Chief Justice Peters had on the law. By 2006, for the year that the the two were colleagues on the Appellate Court, then-Judge Rogers was delighted to learn from the consummate appellate jurist. Finally, when she assumed the same office Ellen Ash Peters had occupied for twelve years, Chief Justice Rogers found the former Chief to be nothing but supportive, rooting for her success and never second guessing a decision she made.

Next, on the program was retired Chief Judge of the Appellate Court, Alexandra DiPentima. To ignore her years of service after Chief Justice Peters left the Supreme Court in 2000 is to miss a very big part of the impact she had on Connecticut's legal landscape. Connecticut law permits former Supreme Court and Appellate Court judges to continue their appellate service once they have reached the mandatory constitutional retirement age of 70 by hearing appeals on the state's Appellate Court as a judge trial referee.³ Justice Peters continued hearing appeals and authoring opinions for another fourteen years after leaving the Supreme Court, longer than she served as Chief Justice. Chief Judge DiPentima described how in the last chapter of her career Justice Peters not only continued to make a significant contribution to the law and to the Judicial Branch, doing a work she loved and excelled at, but how she continued to be the generous colleague and mentor to a new generation of appellate jurists. Finally, Chief Judge DiPentima gave witness to the former Chief's courageous and selfless decision to step away from the job and retire before anyone came to know what she had begun to know herself, that age was catching up with her.

Among the 46 individuals who had the unique opportunity to serve as law clerk to Ellen A. Peters on both the Supreme and Appellate Courts, approximately 30 managed to attend this event, an impressive number understanding that so many of us had clerked for her decades earlier. Many are retired now, some residing outside of Connecticut. Others still hold demanding positions in the profession. Our Chief treasured her relationship with each of her law clerks, and we returned her loyalty and affection.

It was well known among the dozens of law clerks who spent a year with Chief Justice Peters, that the program's penultimate speaker, Tory Chavey, now a Superior Court Judge, remained the closest to her in her later years. In her remarks, Judge Chavey reflected upon what it was like to serve as a law clerk to such a legendary legal figure, how much we all learned from her and how she challenged us to prepare seriously and think critically, while at the same time bringing warmth and caring to the relationship.

Judge Chavey's co-clerk during the 1992-93 court year was Michael Besso, who has served as an Assistant Attorney General for nearly 30 years. In addition to his J.D. from the University of Connecticut, Attorney Besso earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Rutgers University after beginning his legal career. Mike is a dear friend to many of the attendees of the event commemorating Chief Justice Peters and has written extensively about state constitutional law, including in Connecticut as impacted by hisjudge.⁴ His wonderful homage to our Chief, and its welcome theme of the law bringing us hope, is a perfect addition to this volume.

As the final speaker of the event, Jim Peters addressed the courtroom, on behalf of his family. First, he thanked the many folks who had made the event possible. He then provided some insights that he and his family had managed to cobble together as they spent a great deal of their own lives appreciating and understanding what made up Ellen Ash Peters. What I had found remarkable in chatting with Jim­ often over email-as together we planned the event, was how much he and his family did not know about her professional life. They obviously knew that she was accomplished and had held important positions: Yale law professor, first female Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court and then its Chief Justice. But mostly she was their mother. She kept the two parts of her life as separate as she could manage. Still, they knew Ellen Peters to be an unrivaled force of nature and Jim came prepared to let us in on what he had learned over the years that, at least in part, made her so.

I will not even tease the story that followed for fear of spoiling it. It needs to be read or heard in Jim's own words. Like many in that courtroom in October, 2024, who knew Chief Justice Peters well and for a long time, I was hearing most of what Jim's remarks contained for the first time. More than one person has said to me since hearing Jim speak that day that his address should be required viewing (or now, reading) for students of every level. That is not only because Jim is a gifted storyteller, but because the story of Ellen Ash Peters and her family is a shining example-but far from the only example-of 20th century immigrants who came to the United States asking nothing of this nation and its people other than freedom, safety, and the opportunity to work hard, and whose contribution to our nation far surpassed anything they took from it. On that October day of 2024, this lesson seemed to me timely, and timeless.

Jim Peters devoted his career to education. His mother too began her legal career as an educator and as anyone who served on the court with her, appeared before her, or clerked for her can attest, she never stopped being an educator. It should not have been surprising, therefore, that even after her passing, as we all assembled to hear those whose reflections on Chief Justice Peters make up this volume, she continued to teach, even in her last days, as her son let us in on, providing a moral we could all take with us.

I am grateful to the editors of the Connecticut Supreme Court History Journal that these lessons will be available to many others, bound in this edition of that publication. And thank you to Editor-in-Chief, Judge Henry Cohn, for asking me to pen this introduction.

_{1 The event is archived and viewable by the public at CT-N Video Player: Connecticut Judicial Branch Memorial Ceremony for Former CT Supreme Court Chief Justice Ellen Ash Peters.}

_{2 See e.g., Wesley W. Horton, The History of the Connecticut Supreme Court (Thompson-West 2008)}

_{3 Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-434c.}

_{4 Examples of Mike Besso's published works include "A Study in Constitutional Development," Studies in American Political Development (Cambridge 2003); "Thomas Hooker and his May 1638 Sermon," Early American Studies, Vol. to, p. 194 (2012); Editor's Introduction, Volume VII, Connecticut Supreme Court History (2014), an introduction on a seminar on Cologne v. Westfarms Mall.}

By Joette Katz, Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court (Retired) and Partner at Shipman & Goodwin LLP

First, allow me to thank Justice D' Auria for arranging this with the help of many others, in particular Justice Peters' adoring family. It is indeed an honor and a privilege to have this opportunity.

There have been many wonderful things written about EAP-the accolades abound about her brilliance, her many firsts, her countless accomplishments. My remarks are actually more about me-like Bet Middler's line in the movie Beaches: enough about me; what do you think about me? You see, I grew up at the feet ofEAP. I wrote my first brief to the Supreme Court not long after she was appointed to this Court. (State v. Whistnant argued in 1979 and decided in 1980-for the record, I lost that case, but the Court had to re-write the law of lesser-included-offenses to do it!).

As a young public defender, I read Ellen's appreciation of the Connecticut Constitution as a personal invitation to advance claims under the state constitution, breathing life into it as the US Constitution was on life support under the Burger court. As Chief of Legal Services, I saw this first hand in State v. Stoddard - the 1988 decision that she authored, affording an independent meaning of the due process clause of article first, § 8, of the Connecticut Constitution to the issue of whether to impose a duty upon police officers holding a suspect for custodial interrogation to apprise him of efforts by his counsel at the police station trying to get access to him to provide pertinent and timely legal assistance. I also watched with admiration how she handled the oral argument in that same case (Stoddard). Not only did she find meaning in our state constitution, but she also brilliantly managed the oral argument before a Court made up of 4 practicing Catholics who listened as we claimed in another issue in the case that the Governor did not have the right to close the Courts on Good Friday. And keeping with the same theme of moi, soon after I was appointed to this Court, I wrote my first dissent as an Associate Justice to one of Ellen's majorities addressing privacy interest in garbage. (State v. DeFusco) (1993).

There was a practical side to Ellen and an awareness and appreciation of the role of politics. When I was first appointed by Governor Weicker, I was 39 years and 7 months old. I also had not been "introduced" to the legislature that would be voting on my confirmation. Rather than get me sworn in for the first term, Ellen delayed that by a month to give me time to meet with Richard Tulisano (aka King Richard). That meeting was indeed memorable. I recall him saying: "you know, normally we put them (trial judges) up there when they're 67 years old; we don't care what they do, but you, you could be dangerous." Needless to say, that time and the meeting helped smooth the path, allowing me to sit the next term.

Ellen put the fear of God in all of us–in a good way. She ran a very tight ship. We heard nearly 200 cases under her leadership, and July 31st was a drop-dead date by which all opinions had to be approved. And I recall when she was assigning panels, if someone was turning 70, he was not assigned to sit on a case unless she could be sure the opinion would be written, voted on and released with time to spare for the losing party to get a decision on his motion to reargue before the Justice's 70th birthday rolled around. I recall that more than once in July waking up from a nightmare in a cold sweat having dreamt about some opinion Ellen had assigned to me in February and she was looking for my draft. It was like the dream about looking for the exam room for a class you thought you had dropped.

In 1994, I drove a car full of Justices–Borden, Callahan, and Palmer–to Washington D.C. for Ellen's induction as President of Conference of Chief Justices. And we lived to laugh about it. I think we made it in 4 ½ hours and no stops. It was wonderful to see Ellen recognized by her colleagues across the country. I remember that Justice Berdan refused to drive with us because he said, what happens if there's a fatal accident and the court gets wiped out? I answered, we'll be replaced by Tuesday because Monday's a holiday.

But I think I learned most from watching Ellen as she identified problems and strategically worked to solve them. She was careful and did not engage in death by committee but rather picked her battles-like creating the Gender Bias Task Force at which many of us young lawyers were invited to speak confidentially about the sexism we were experiencing. She knew that issue all too well. Recommendations were made and implemented. She also opened the door to amici briefs that previously had been a rarity so that broader interests could have a voice. Ellen was never afraid of more information being brought to light. And quietly, and without fanfare, she ended the practice of opening Court with a prayer, adhering to the principle of separation of church and state.

Ellen also valued experiences that typical and traditional jurists did not have-like Justice Glass who grew up in the segregated south and did not attend school until he was 10 years of age. Ellen adored him and although she did not always join his dissents, as I'm sure Justice McDonald noticed in writing State v. Edmonds (323 Conn. 34), her majority in Sheff echoed his words and his sentiments from many of his previous opinions.

I'll conclude with one final personal story. When Judge Fred Freedman, who had been Administrative Judge of the Appellate System, was retiring,  Ellen needed to appoint a replacement. She approached me and said what was at issue and asked if I would step in as only she could: “Joette,” she said, “Fred is just too nice for this job; you and I don't have that problem.”

Amen.

Excerpted by permission from the Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society.