Pascal F. Calogero Jr.

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Pascal Frank Calogero Jr. (November 9, 1931 – December 20, 2018)^[1][2] was the longest-serving Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Background

A native of

He was first elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1972 and reelected in 1974, 1988, and 1998. He retired at the end of 2008, a record career of thirty-six years. While on the bench, he participated in more than six thousand oral arguments and published opinions. He personally authored more than one thousand majority opinions, concurrences, and dissents.[3]

As Chief Justice, he oversaw the establishment of the Louisiana Indigent Defender Board, improvements to the juvenile court system, development of a new lawyer disciplinary code, the strengthening of the judicial disciplinary system, the adoption of strategic plans for the three-tiered court system, implementation of a uniform pay plan for the state appellate courts, and establishment of the Supreme Court's community relations department.

Calogero's most visible achievement is the renovation of the New Orleans Civil Court Building^[3] at Royal and Conti Streets in the French Quarter. Built in 1908 for the Supreme Court and many smaller courts and state offices, the Royal Street courthouse had been vacated by the state courts in 1958. The building suffered serious neglect and was in danger of being torn down or altered significantly for other purposes. In the 1980s, the Supreme Court began to explore the possibility of returning to its 1908 building, and throughout the 1990s Calogero fought to win over the legislature to the idea and to acquire state funding for the project. The renovation was completed in 2004, and the Supreme Court and its associated agencies moved back into their former home. The building now lends its dignity to the proceedings of the court and its vitality to the French Quarter.

References

External links

• Pascal Calogero, Judgepedia site