On April 13, 2024, I was honored to accept the Jurist of the Year award from the Texas Review of Law & politics. Perhaps more importantly, I was quite pleased to see the Josh Blackman Bobblehead. I stand in some great company.
Here is the audio, where you'll hear comments from two very special guests.
And here are my prepared remarks:
Introduction
Thank you so much for the introduction, Judge Ho. It is the honor of a lifetime to be up here. But in candor, I'm not sure why I'm here. When Adam Ross told me that I was selected as the 2024 TROLP jurist of the year, my immediate reaction was, to quote Wayne's World: "I'm not worthy." Let's do a survey of the 25 TROLP jurists of the year who came before me. There were two Supreme Court Justices: Scalia and Thomas. There were ten lower-court federal judges: Jones, Starr, Smith, Owen, Garwood, Pryor, Willett, O'Connor, Elrod, and Ho. There were four Senators: Cornyn, Lee, Cruz, and Cotton. There were three Solicitors General: Olson, Coleman, Clement. There were two Attorneys General: Meese and Abbott. There was only one law professor who was jurist of the year: Lino Graglia, a giant in the law, who received the award when he was eighty years old.
Then there's me. I'm not a judge, and I don't consider myself a jurist. I've never held any appointed or elected governmental position. I am not, nor have I ever been, an "Officer of the United States." I've never argued a case before the Supreme Court, or any appellate court for that matter. I did not attend, and do not teach at an elite law school. To quote another classic piece of American pop culture, Sesame Street, One of these things is not like the other. Relatedly, I think my TROLP bobblehead is the first one with curly hair.
So, why am I up here? I'm still not entirely sure. But I'd like to use my brief time at this podium to convey a message: this can be you. If I can be up here, so can you. To state the issue more bluntly, I don't want to be the only one up here. I want each and every one of you to find your path to this stage. As I'll explain, it will not be easy. There will be many forces pushing back against you. There is no glidepath to getting your very own bobblehead. But I am ready to help. Indeed, I try by word and deed to model the behavior it takes to get up here. If you'll indulge me, let me offer five tips.
Lesson #1—Guard your time wisely and jealously
No matter who you are, there are twenty-four hours in a day and seven days in a week. Nothing, short of a time machine, can change that. So when someone says "I don't have the time to do X" what they are really telling you is that they prefer to spend their time on Y. To be sure, we all have commitments–work, family, recreation, sleep, and so on. (I assure you, I do sleep, just not at the same times you do.) But at bottom, we all choose how to spend our time. Earlier in your career, it will be up to you to seek out opportunities to spend your time. For the students in the room, you should learn to say yes more than no. That is how you get ahead. When more senior people realize you can do stuff, and do it well, they'll ask you to do more. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. But as you progress and grow, there will be increasingly more demands on your time. Now, you must learn when to say no and when to say yes. I need to learn to say no more, but it is a challenge. Throughout all stages, however, you must guard that time both wisely and jealously. And how do you choose how to spend your time? That brings me to my second point.
Lesson #2—Use your time to follow your purpose
Why are we all here at this dinner for the Texas Review of Law & Politics? At one level, we're here to have a nice dinner and snag a shaggy bobblehead. But at a deeper level, I think we're all here for a more profound reason. Everyone in this room shares a collective sense of purpose: the Constitution, the rule of law, and civil society. We can argue and debate about the precise contours of those precepts, but we agree on the big picture. Our republic today is on a shaky foundation, and only through a rededication to the Constitution and the rule of law can our civil society be preserved. Your purpose is something bigger than yourself. And you must commit yourself to that purpose.
I am fortunate that I realized my purpose in this movement at a fairly young age. I think it happened at some point during my first year of law school at George Mason, now Scalia Law. And I think those who have joined TROLP had a similar epiphany. Indeed, TROLP is a pillar in this movement. The TROLP Mission statement defines that purpose well: TROLP "publishes thoughtful and intellectually rigorous conservative articles—articles that traditional law reviews often fail to publish—that can serve as blueprints for constructive legal reform." I've published many times in TROLP for that precise purpose. And those articles have been cited by scholars and courts for that reason.
So let's put the first two lessons together. How do you choose to spend your time? Choose to spend your time to pursue your purpose. Which brings me to my third point. What do you do with that time?
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