Just two years into a six-year term, Idaho Supreme Court Justice G. Richard Bevan in retiring. His last day is Friday, Oct. 30. Bevan has served on the state's highest bench since 2017 and was named chief justice by his peers in 2021. He has already left that role, handing off to new Chief Justice Robin Brady.
Boise State Public Radio host Troy Oppie visited with Bevan at his office and asked him about his decision to retire now. You can listen to the full interview by clicking the play button on the audio above, or read the full transcript below:
Justice Richard Bevan: You know that it has not been an easy decision. But in the same breath, I've served 23 years as a judge. I have enjoyed my service immensely and it's just I have a large and kind of growing family, grandchildren and children that I want to spend time with my wife more time and perhaps service in another or different kind of way than I've been doing on the judiciary. So the timing was just right personally for me to, to make this change.
Oppie: Describe the role of Chief Justice kind of in in a nutshell, what the workload is and what your responsibilities are.
Bevan: The chief justice is the administrative head of the Idaho Judicial Branch. Really, the five justices certainly make our decisions together, but the chief is the one. When a decision ultimately has to be made, or statements need to be made to the public that has to own the own the decision, and stand for that. As far as the administrative head, estimate that Chief Justice spends probably 20-25% of his or her time doing the administrative obligations of the court and the other 75 doing the deciding of cases that that all of us are involved in.
Oppie: Yeah. And you get to shepherd decisions like, you know, guiding the court system into the future. I know modern technology, adoption of modern technology has been a big thing throughout your career. How have you seen that progress go and what's left to be done?
Bevan: That's that's a great question. I was the first judge in Idaho to to move to digital records in Twin Falls County. When I was a district judge there, and I've seen that from 2015 now expand over the 11 years since into the AI governance that the court has just now looking to adopt for the dealing with how judges should handle AI and, and the other issues of taking our documents to the cloud, maintaining the security of a. In a world that's constantly challenged with cybersecurity threats. Courts around the country have been shut down and had to go back to paper due to those kinds of things. So those are the worries on the horizon. I think that the adoption of our governance standards is, is a perfect and very important step to move forward as far as how the courts use AI. Ultimately, judging has to be a human experience. Ai tools can help us find a case, uh, find good language for something. We might see an opinion, but but ultimately the judge needs to be making a human decision. So that's somewhat of my concern as I look forward is, is how do we balance that that scale in this vastly and and quickly improving, if you want to call it improvement. Some may say it's not an improvement, but changing world of technology.
Oppie: What is something you accomplished as Chief Justice that you are particularly proud of?
Bevan: I would say just unifying and getting our documents into the cloud from a purely technological standpoint, I think that offers much better security than having 44 separate servers around the state. I'm really proud that we're we're not quite there, but we're almost there in that as far as the legal end of things, I'm very proud that this court has continued to wrestle with an ever burgeoning level of original actions. We're getting now for special writs, things that are filed straight to this court. When I started nine years ago, we'd get 3 to 5 of those a year. We're getting 50 plus now, a year of those kinds of things. And we've been able to manage turning those around in a in a way. And frankly, handling really sensitive, important issues for the people of Idaho. I think in a way that while remaining really committed to the process of getting it right. I'm really proud of how this court and the court, over the five years with other justices who are now gone has handled that that as well. I think it's a it's an important part of what we're doing, especially in today's world, that didn't used to be kind of what we even thought about that often, frankly.
Oppie: Do you have a favorite or a most memorable case or maybe a most memorable sector that you enjoyed working in? You know, working through those cases more than others?
Bevan: Um, most favorable sector would probably be the criminal law for me simply because that's kind of where I've been in my life.
Oppie: You were a prosecutor.
Bevan: Yeah. And, uh, and there have been some real interesting issues in the criminal cases that, that have really been enjoyable. I don't know how familiar you are with cases involving dog sniff searches over the last five years, but.
Oppie: There was one very recently. Of course.
Bevan: I've been a lone dissenter as that started down the path and it's come around to where now I wrote a majority opinion that was kind of the most recent one, where the justices are pretty well evenly divided over, over the nature of using dogs as instruments for law enforcement to, to search. And that's been enjoyable from the standpoint that we've remained quite ensconced in our views of what the law requires in terms of the Fourth Amendment, the ability to search with a dog sniff. And I've maintained a dog as a dog, and you can't control a dog like you might a radar detector or some other human tool. But my colleagues saw that differently. But it's been that's been fun. And apart from those, I think I enjoy the, the intricacies of, of human engagement and what happens in criminal law. And so that would be my favorite.
Oppie: What's the stickiest genre of case that you have had to preside over?
Bevan: I would say... 'stickiest:' is that in the sense of politically or most difficult legal analysis?
Oppie: That's for you to decide in your answer, I think.
Bevan: Well, the stickiest certainly. Uh, you know, just thinking of nine years of opinion writing and deciding certainly the first case the court issued on abortion, a three two decision that had a lot of ramifications for so many people in our in our state. Um, and again, we wanted to get it right and it ended up a three two decision. Stickiest in terms of most difficult, frankly, are cases involving property disputes, often from North Idaho, where the records aren't as good as they might be, and people are disputing over land records or land rights that are very difficult to flesh through and look through a record that could be thousands of pages long and and come up with really what what people were deciding when they transferred this property back in 1880. And those are those are sticky from the standpoint that they're just very difficult in terms of wading through all of that information.
Oppie: You have talked a lot in your public remarks about the importance to you of your time overseeing treatment courts. You know, you stepped out of the day to day of of that certainly once you you joined the the justices in this role. But what influence do you think you've been able to have over the last eight years or so?
Bevan: I think when I first got here, I chaired the the treatment court committee for the court. And so I continued to have influence with statewide leaders that deal with with treatment courts in every corner of our state. That committee continues to be led well by Justice Greg Moeller. But from a from a just an overall standpoint of impacting those. I think part of it is that no less than three of us who have been judges on the court have handled treatment courts, presided over treatment courts, whether when Justice John Stegner was here or now with Justice Cynthia Meyer. So all three of us, and then the other two, who certainly have come to understand the nature of that work, have really helped to to push the impact and importance of treatment courts forward among our judges and our citizens, I think. So we've we've continued to, to try and develop that area of, of the legal practice of judges. We've we've created more treatment courts around the state, particularly some domestic violence courts. And we've also created and drafted guidelines and rules for how how do we handle due process in a court that's much more laissez faire, much more just people coming in, shaking the judges hand, talking about how their week went and how do we ensure that their rights are protected. So those we've stood those rules up in the last five years, probably, and more recently. And I think those are really important in terms of how we deal with people's rights in these courts.
Oppie: You have talked a lot about the importance of the rule of law and the, you know, being the underpinning of our society. I think the quote is "the guiding star of our civil society." in your most recent speech to the legislature. Do you feel like the rule of law is safe in the United States right now?
Bevan: Um, I think it's safe, but I think there are certainly chinks in the armor. I think in Idaho it's safe. I think we have a group of judges who understand that sometimes you have to make a really tough call, and people are not going to be happy with the result. But nevertheless, you apply the law. And if somebody thinks you got it wrong, you come here to this court or the court of Appeals and get another look. But nationwide, it just seems that without getting too political, judges are under attack from every angle, and the law is seeming to be more politicized than I ever remember it in my life. And I just think for that reason, I call that a chink in the armor. I just think we have to stay true to the bedrock principles of what the law is and what it means, and not to the whims of, of, uh, social media or the politics of the day or the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Oppie: Judge Jason Scott has been appointed to join the bench. When you step down, and I wonder what you would like your successor to know about this role.
Bevan: Uh, what I would tell him or any other person coming into the judiciary really at any level is listen more than you talk. Think more than you act or react. And understand that this is a court of five people now coming from a district judge position myself, where you're you're kind of a lone decider, certainly in terms of you can't just go out and collaborate. This court in my time has really become unified in the sense that we disagree without being disagreeable. We get along extremely well in that regard. I have some views on dog sniff and other cases that are viewed quite drastically from my friends. But in the same breath, we walk out of the room still friends. And so I would say in this type of a court, well, we're not in lockstep. We're not rubber stamping each other's choices. We we stand for what we believe, but we do it in a way that helps the public have confidence in this group that we're not at odds. And warring factions, like other maybe movies or shows, portray judges that that we really are trying to put our best foot forward and, and be a team player in that respect.
Oppie: What are the most immediate challenges that the court system in Idaho faces?
Bevan: Uh, I think retention and recruitment of judges across the board, keeping them in, in the job. Our judiciary right now across Idaho is as young as it's ever been. Probably. I don't say that with any definite data right in front of me, but we know that over half, I think are five years or less on the job right now. And so a challenge is to maintain a judiciary that people want to be a part of. That good lawyers want to want to be a judge, and that we can maintain the the great bench that we have in Idaho through that process, because the demands are certainly significant. The nature of the work has changed to to a point where many people aren't even interested. I just heard today that we're looking for a new district judge to replace a retiring district judge in Blaine County. And we put out the notification for applicants quite early for that. He's retiring in March. The deadline was Friday and no one applied. So those are, I think, among many challenges, those kinds of issues. How do we deal with that? What do we do to get someone to go be a judge in Hailey, Idaho? And how do we keep those who are there that, you know, can go make probably double the money out in private practice? How do we keep them engaged and wanting to stay and remain a public servant.
Oppie: There are previous justices who have left the bench and returned to private practice. They have continued to use their public voice in writing op eds. One is running for office statewide office right now. What are your plans? Do you think you'll have continued attempts to try to put your voice out there further?
Bevan: I don't intend to go back to private practice. I do intend to do some senior judge work with the court and actually in the next legislative session. My my intent and the court has requested, I'm going to be acting as the court's help voice in the legislature. I think I have a.
Oppie: Lobbyist, so to speak?
Bevan: Well, yes, but no, I mean, courts aren't really lobbyists. We have an individual who did that work over time that became a judge and left us. And, uh, and before him, a prior judge, Barry Wood, did this. It's more developing relationships, allowing legislators to feel comfortable asking questions about legislation about, uh, you know what? What this will do to how this particular bill might affect the judiciary. Now, I'm not over there to offer, you know, Monday morning quarterback view of a case or what this bill might do in this court. But I certainly have to stay away from that. But it's more of an effort to help the legislators understand what our courts do. And the importance of what I mentioned earlier about retaining and compensating justice judges fairly and those kinds of things. So lobbyists not I don't necessarily like that term, but but certainly a liaison, if you will, helping.
Oppie: Helping lawmakers understand what the guardrails might be to the legislation they're thinking about and trying to get them to think a little bit more about the future of the judiciary in Idaho.
Bevan: I like the way you put that. Yes.
Oppie: I think that's a great place to to leave it. Richard Bevan is the retiring state Supreme Court justice, the former chief justice since 2021. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us today, and best of luck in your retirement.
Bevan: Thank you so very much.
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