TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Joseph Hatchett, the first Black justice on the Florida Supreme Court, lay in state Friday in the Supreme Court rotunda after his death last week at age 88.
“He was a great judge, but more importantly a great man,” said Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, who was among the people paying their respects to Hatchett. “It’s important that we study his history as a lawyer and as a judge. It reminds us of the importance of the role of the judiciary and the rule of law.”
Hatchett served on the Supreme Court from 1975 to 1979, when President Jimmy Carter named him as a federal appeals-court judge.
On the court, Hatchett stood up for journalists and the First Amendment, blocking the jailing of a then St. Petersburg Times reporter writing about public corruption.
“Because of this decision, Justice Hatchett to this day is remembered as a defender of the First Amendment,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady said.
While on the bench in Florida, Hatchett supported opening the state’s courtrooms to television cameras. He then went on to serve 20 years on the federal bench.
“And what struck me was his quiet confidence. His poise,” Appeals Court Judge Gerald Tjoflat said.
Hatchett stepped down from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1999 and returned to a law practice in Tallahassee.
Several current and former justices and judges attended Friday’s ceremony.
Walker, who is chief judge in the federal Northern District of Florida, said he met Hatchett as a young law clerk.
“What I think distinguishes Judge Hatchett, a great judge, from other judges is that at the end of the day, above all in addition to being brilliant, Judge Hatchett had a wise and understanding heart,” Walker said.
Hatchett graduated from Florida A&M University in 1954 and went on to earn a law degree from Howard University in 1959. When he took the Florida Bar exam in 1959, he could not stay in the hotel where it was administered because of the Jim Crow system, according to a news release from the Supreme Court.
“But he did not let the barriers of injustice stop him,” Canady said.
Antoinette Walker, Hatchett’s niece, added a personal touch and said family gatherings were always fun.
“We had talent shows. We just had a happy family,” Antoinette Walker said.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee. Hatchett will be buried Monday in Dunedin.