KNOXVILLE — Former Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Riley Anderson has donated his official papers to the University of Tennessee’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.
The collection includes documents and files on his Supreme Court opinions, Special Supreme Court Workers’ Compensation Appeals Panels, and his administration of the Judicial Branch during his service as chief justice from October 1994 through August 2001. It also includes an array of speeches, photographs and newspaper articles from his 1990 and 1998 Supreme Court campaigns and personal files on political campaigns prior to being appointed to the Court of Appeals in 1987.
“I am very pleased that Justice Anderson has entrusted his papers to the Baker Center. I have great respect for his service to the people of Tennessee, and I know that his archives will be an excellent resource for students and scholars alike,” former U.S. Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. said.
Anderson was born Aug. 10, 1932. He received his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1957. He graduated from New York University’s Appellate Judges Program in 1988 and from the Advanced Appellate Judges Program in 1999, and he is a member of the NYU Institute of Judicial Administration. He practiced private law in Oak Ridge from 1958 to 1987, and he served as a charter commissioner for the city of Oak Ridge from 1962 to 1964. He was appointed to the Court of Appeals on March 2, 1987, and elected in August 1988.
In August 1990, he became one of the last Tennessee Supreme Court members to be elected by the public. Court members are now appointed by the governor and subject to public retention votes.
Anderson was re-elected to the Supreme Court in August 1998. He served as chief justice from October 1994 to May 1996, from July 1997 to August 1998, from September 1998 to August 2001, and from September 2, 2005, to October 5, 2005.
During his time as chief justice, the Supreme Court passed a rule allowing the media to bring cameras into courtrooms. He worked on and wrote more than 3,000 appellate court decisions during his judicial career. Anderson retired on Aug. 31, 2006.
Anderson’s papers will be part of the Baker Center’s Modern Political Archives (MPA). The MPA is a joint partnership between the UT Libraries and the Baker Center. Current collections in the MPA include the papers of U.S. Sens. Howard H. Baker Jr., Estes Kefauver, Fred Thompson, and William Emerson Brock III; Govs. Donald Sundquist and Winfield Dunn; U.S. Reps. John J. Duncan Sr., Howard H. Baker Sr. and Irene Baker; state Sen. Ben Atchley; and Mayor Victor Ashe. Also included are the papers of Professor Milton Russell and Lee Annis.
“The archives already hold the papers of many of Tennessee’s most accomplished leaders of the past 50 years, and we continue efforts to add to these collections and to make them all available to scholars, students and the public in a variety of formats,” Baker Center Executive Director Alan Lowe said. “We believe that archives form the true basis of the writing of history and the analysis of important public policy issues. We strive to preserve these materials, make them fully and easily available to researchers and use them in our public programs and educational initiatives.”
The MPA will be housed in the new Baker Center facility, which is now under construction and expected to be completed in 2008.
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Contacts:
Amy Blakely, (865) 974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu
Alan Lowe, (865) 974-8515, alowe4@tennessee.edu