{"id":3900,"date":"2023-03-03T09:34:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T17:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.piercecountywa.gov\/executive\/?p=3900"},"modified":"2023-06-26T13:26:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T20:26:37","slug":"behind-the-robe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.piercecountywa.gov\/executive\/2023\/03\/03\/behind-the-robe\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the robe"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I have a robe that I wear in the morning.\u00a0 It keeps me warm on cold winter days when getting the coffee for my wife.\u00a0 My robe is not symbolic of a foundational element of our society (although I still have a West Point bathrobe I won in a bet on the Army-Navy game more than 40 years ago!).\u00a0 And even when \u201czooming\u201d into a meeting, I would never think of wearing my robe to work!\u00a0 But we have over 40 colleagues who do wear robes to work every day – and these robes represent their impartiality, objectivity, wisdom, and fairness.<\/p>\n

Many of us will never see the inside of a courtroom unless we are serving on a jury (and please answer that summons!).\u00a0 However, what happens there is a cornerstone of our society – keeping our community both safe and civil.<\/p>\n

Judges make life altering decisions every day of the week, whether overseeing a criminal trial or resolving a civil dispute.\u00a0 What does it take to be a judge, and why would anyone want the stress of making those kinds of decisions?<\/p>\n

To find out more, I recently spent some time with Judge Timothy Ashcraft, the Superior Court presiding judge.<\/p>\n