Chief Justice Richard Robinson's Cultural Life.

Connecticut's top jurist's cultural treasures include standup comedy, science fiction movies, Jimi Hendrix and Hamilton. He shares a meditation on mortality and the meaning of the passage of time.

All rise! Chief Justice Richard Robinson is this week’s Now You Know guest. The Chief Justice was appointed to the Superior Court in 2007. He was elevated to the Appellate Court seven years later. In rose to the Supreme Court in 2013 and became Chief Justice in 2018. He shares more than his eclectic cultural life. The Chief Justice includes a poignant meditation on age and the recalibrations time requires.

A fourth degree karate black belt, the Chief Justice may be the leader of one of Connecticut’s three equal branches of government, but it appears he has little authority over the television remote at home.

Though he is fluent in Middle English, the Chief Justice provided his responses in contemporary English for the convenience of readers.

Favorite author or book.

    Tolkien

The book you are reading.

    Connecticut in the American Civil War – Matthew Warshauer

The book you couldn’t finish.

[Editor’s note: Chief Justice Robinson finishes the books he starts.]   

The book you’ve long intended to read but never get to.

The Autobiography of Medgar Evers, by Myrlie Evers-Williams & Manning Marable.  I have an autographed copy that was given to me after I became the Chief Justice.  There is a wonderful personal message to me that was written by Myrlie Ever-Williams.

Most memorable live performance.

Hamilton

Your best binge.

    A day of Sci-Fi movies and TV shows.

Favorite TV series.

    Squid Game

A YouTube video you find yourself returning to.

    The stand-up comic videos.  They are great de-stressors!

Favorite piece of music.

  It's a tie: Ode to Joy and Little Wing

    I know that it is an odd combination, but for as long as I can remember, Beethoven's Ode to Joy has moved me.  As for Little Wing, I have played the guitar for many years now, and Jimi Hendrix' swing/rock/R&B style is amazingly complex but is so easy on the ear and sounds so simple.  Little Wing is a great example of that.

The music that cheers you up.

    Neo soul

    Nineteen Seventies Funk

If you could own one painting, it would be…..

The Persistence of Memory – Salvadore Dali

The lyrics you wish you’d written

    Imagine – John Lennon

The poem/song that makes you wonder

   The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost

The instrument you wish you’d learned to play.

    Piano – I have taken lessons but wish I hadn't stopped.

Your guiltiest cultural pleasure

Visiting New Orleans, the food, music and sights are amazing!

You wasted an evening…….

    Regretting the mistakes of yesterday and worrying about the unknowns of tomorrow.

Something that ought to be better known.

    The importance of our role as well informed and active citizens in our democratic republic.

A recent discovery.

    As I am now well into the fall season of my life, I find that my priorities in life are changing. Some things that were very important have become less urgent.  On the other hand, things that I had "placed on the back burner" have become far more important and have become more urgent.  I am less fearful of my own mortality, and more aware of the things that I would like to accomplish in my time ahead.

Two podcasts you try not to miss.

    The Moth Radio Hour, that pretty much exhausts my podcast favorites.

You’re having a fantasy dinner party, you’ll invite these guests…..

    Nelson Mandela

    Robert F. Kennedy    

    Anne Frank

    Katherine G. Johnson (NASA mathematician for Apollo missions)

    Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Ulysses S. Grant

    Thurgood Marshall

    Princess Diana

    Malala Yousafzai

    Neil DeGrasse Tyson

    Albert Einstein

    Jimi Hendrix

    Fredrick Douglass

    Parthena (One of my direct ancestors, and first ones to be brought to the U.S.)

    Joseph Pendarvis (One of my direct ancestors. He was from Cornwall England, and arrived in Charleston, S.C., in 1671 of a ship named "The Blessing." Had six children with Parthena, an African woman.)

The place you feel happiest.

​Almost anywhere, where there is a nice quiet waterfront.

A few books every lawyer should read.

    For reasons that I am not sure of, this question is one of the hardest to answer.  As a lawyer and a judge, I am constantly reading, but when I think of this question my mind does not turn to what I believe are the usual answers.  I think that it is important for lawyers and judges to read books that will help us better understand our history, our society, and how we got to where we are today -- books about human nature, and the people that appear before us, that we work with, that we battle against, that we appear before.  So, books like To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, A Common Struggle, by Patrick Kennedy, The Port Chicago Mutiny (The Story of the Largest Mass Mutiny Trial in U.S. Navel History), by Robert L. Allen, and Devil in The Grove, by Gilbert Kingare a few of the books that come to mind.​

A judge (or lawyer) who inspired you.

Thurgood Marshall, J. – both as a lawyer and a Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Chase T. Rogers, C.J.- For the way that she navigated the Connecticut Judicial through some very troubling times and started rebuilding the public's confidence in the institution.  Not to mention her well-reasoned opinions.  We didn't always agree, but it was always a very spirited, collegial, and civil debate!

Favorite law themed movie and/or television.

​This question is really hard for me to answer.  When I am watching a law themed show on television with my wife, she has said several times that I need to  get into the program and stop frustratingly saying, "but that's not how it works!"  There was an episode of Law and Order SVU that was actually based on a case that we decided when I was on the Appellate Court. The decision was affirmed by the Connecticut Supreme Court.  The screen writer used a bit of poetic license and changed what the case and our holding was really about.  I was pretty animated about that one!  All that being said, I am a little embarrassed by this, but I think that I'd have to say, My Cousin Vinny. I've seen it several times because it's one of my wife's favorite movies and I really enjoy watching it with her.

Thank you, Chief Justice Robinson.

An editor’s recommendation:

The massacre and kidnapping of Israelis by Hamas terrorists on October 7th has enraged and bewildered much of the world and all people of goodwill. Dan Senor helps explain events and examine the way forward in his essential podcast, Call Me Back. Saturday’s episode with Middle East policy veteran Eliott Abrams tells listeners how Israel and the region have changed in a week.