Justice Alexander had a solid judicial-openness record

Our state’s Temple of Justice, the grand building on the Capitol Campus in Olympia that houses the state Supreme Court, is beautiful but imposing. Inside the court before a proceeding, spectators sit in pew-like benches, whispering as if they’re in church. Every footstep, every shuffling of papers, draws attention. All are called to stand as the robed justices file in and sit in carved wood chairs behind the elevated bench.

And that’s when you’d see him – the elfin judge with a come-on-in smile who seemed to invite a conversation and remind us all it is the people’s court, after all.

That was my experience in the handful of times I witnessed a Supreme Court hearing that involved The News Tribune. Gerry Alexander was the justice you could depend on to ask the common man’s question of the best legal minds in the state trying cases before him. As noted in our front-page story today, Alexander is about to retire after 17 years on the high court.

A year ago, the Supreme Court heard our case against visiting King County Superior Court Judge James Cayce, who shut a courtroom door on TNT reporter Adam Lynn. Lynn was covering the case of Pierce County Superior Court Judge Michael Hecht, later convicted of buying sex from one young man and threatening to kill another.

Cayce was overseeing the video-recorded testimony of a key witness in an open courtroom when Lynn showed up. At the request of the defense attorney, Cayce told Lynn to leave and declared the proceeding a closed deposition, not an open court hearing.

Our lawyers and Cayce’s were arguing the finer points of discovery depositions and preservation depositions in the Temple when Alexander posed his questions. So if he were just a guy walking down the hall and looked in the door of the court room, he’d see a judge in a robe sitting at the bench, right? He’d see a witness offering testimony and lawyers arguing back and forth, right?  

“It sounds an awful lot like justice being administered,” Alexander said, adding that, under the state constitution, “it is supposed to be open.”

Unfortunately, The News Tribune lost that case in a 7-2 decision. Alexander was one of the dissenters.

In his years on the high court, Alexander didn’t always rule as we liked on open-government cases, but his record on judicial transparency was strong. He was one of two dissenting judges in 2009 when the court decided (again) that administrative judicial records – unlike the records of every other public agency – are not open to the public.

And beyond his decisions, Alexander worked in other ways to keep the courts open.

He was a vocal supporter of TVW, which appropriately boasts on its website about “making history with the first-ever televised state court proceeding when it went on the air April 10, 1995, televising a death penalty case being heard by the Washington State Supreme Court.”

Alexander said televising proceedings helped to educate the citizenry and demystify the judicial process. He favored allowing cameras in the U.S. Supreme Court, as well.

Alexander resisted efforts to install metal detectors at the Temple entrances after 9/11, saying the court should remain accessible.

He also chaired the state Bench-Bar-Press committee, formed in 1963 to improve relations and understanding among lawyers, judges and journalists who cover the courts. The committee developed a set of non-binding guidelines for making the courts as open as possible while still ensuring fair trials. The TNT has called upon the committee’s “Fire Brigade” to mediate coverage disputes and gain access.  

Our state courts are more open to all of us than they were when Alexander took the bench. We applaud his legacy and wish him well in his retirement from the bench.

Karen Peterson: 253-597-8434

karen.peterson@thenewstribune.com