AS STATE OFFICIALS and family celebrated the titanic judicial legacy of the late Chief Justice Ralph Gants four years after his death with an official portrait, they kept coming back to the somewhat impish twinkle in his eyes.
“He always spoke with that glimmer in his eye, and a smile on his face, when he spoke with urgency and intentionality about things that needed to be done,” Gov. Maura Healey said in remarks before the portrait unveiling Wednesday at the John Adams Courthouse.
The first time she met Gants, Healey recalled, she was working as a litigation associate at Hale and Dorr representing the Boston Red Sox. Gants, then a Superior Court judge, was overseeing a suit brought by the Red Sox against first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who caught the final out to settle Boston’s 2004 World Series title. Gants was charged with determining, Healey said, if Mientkiewicz “lawfully pocketed that baseball” he then tried to keep.
“Now, Chief Justice Gants has said that if he couldn’t have played for the Red Sox, being chief justice ultimately was a good second, solid choice,” Healey said, to laughs. “So it was with that background that he actually heard the case. And all of us, together with the help of Harold Koh, dove in and learned all that we needed to learn about who ultimately owns baseball bats and mitts and even the stockings. And the rules are different depending on whose field it is; the rules are even more different when it’s MLB playoffs.”
Attorney Roger Michel, a former prosecutor and Parole Board member who funded the Sharman Altshuler painting of Gants and shepherded the project to fruition, said the late justice was a joy to “cross lances with.”
During his last day arguing before Gants, he recalled, “At a crucial juncture, I pointed out to the chief that [Sir William] Blackstone’s views on double jeopardy have become unmoored from modern precedents, and survive today only on the strength of mere tradition. The chief mused for a moment, then flashed that trademark grin and replied, ‘Without traditions, Mr. Michel, our lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.’ It was the perfect reply.”
After helping Michel remove the black veil from the portrait, SJC Justice Frank Gaziano said the portrait captured the signature “sparkle in his eyes.” The portrait, with Gants’ somewhat “mischievous” demeanor, will hang near the courtroom where the justices must pass it, which Gaziano said was perfect placement. “We all will be reminded of our collective duty,” he said, to rule “without fear or favor and always look out for the little guy.”
Northeastern University professor Deborah Ramirez – Gants’ wife and the governor’s former law school professor – smiled and laughed along with the anecdotes and warm memories. “Today is a celebration,” she said. “Not a sad day. We’re celebrating his legacy.” Gants lived by principles of “radical optimism” and the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, Ramirez said, in believing the world and its challenges could be fixed.
Boston’s incumbent stronghold
A large number of Beacon Hill incumbents could sigh with relief this week, as the filing deadline for candidates came and went, and most went without a primary or general election challenger.
Sixty-five percent, by our count. But it’s even higher within the 22-member Boston delegation, with 77 percent in the Democratic stronghold set to coast to reelection without an opponent. Most of the others are facing nominal challenges.
That’s partly because several contenders didn’t materialize in the end. Mark Rooney, an Eversource employee and brother of Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce CEO Jim Rooney, was on track to challenge Rep. David Biele, who represents South Boston. He loaned himself $5,000 and spent more than half of it on a voter survey earlier this year.
But Rooney pulled back at the last minute. Was it the power of incumbency? (Congressman Stephen Lynch and former mayor Marty Walsh just headlined a kickoff for Biele.) Or money? (Biele reported just under $100,000 in his campaign kitty.) “Unfortunately the timing wasn’t good from a personal standpoint,” he said, additionally citing a “family health issue.”
Another potential House contender decided she’d prefer higher office instead. Althea Garrison, a perennial candidate who had brief stints as a state representative and a Boston city councilor, had initially planned to run against Rep. Chris Worrell this year, but recently abandoned the campaign.
“The reason I’m not running for state rep is because I’m taking the mayor’s race very seriously,” Garrison said in a phone interview. “I decided I was going to spend my energy running for mayor.”
Gov. silent on home equity reckoning
The Legislature will grapple with the thorny issue of home equity theft – when a municipality forecloses on a person’s home over a tax debt but keeps the property’s full value beyond the amount owed – during this budget cycle. But the governor, so far, has been looking elsewhere.
After the US Supreme Court declared the practice unconstitutional in 2023, a Hampden County Superior Court judge ruled on April 18 that a use of Chapter 60, which allows the practice in Massachusetts, violates Article 10 of the Massachusetts Constitution’s Declaration of Rights and the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution.
The April ruling concerned a Springfield woman whose failure to pay about $1,600 in property taxes in 2016 prompted the city to put a lien on her home. After some payments and years of penalties, she faced a roughly $22,000 bill to redeem her right to her property, but Springfield this year argued that the city process allowed them to divest her of all interest in her $145,000 home.
In his decision, Judge Michael Callan wrote that the “statutory scheme, in its present form, is untenable and requires Legislative correction.”
The Supreme Court ruling and news reporting on the practice launched a flurry of action on Beacon Hill last year. Eliminating the system entirely has been a tough sell for municipalities and the private firms that buy municipal tax debts – seizing the full value of homes has been lucrative, and cities and towns argue that such foreclosures offer a strong incentive to pay property taxes.
Language made its way into the Senate budget this month eliminating the right to seize property value beyond the taxes owed and reasonably incurred expenses. Amendment sponsor Sen. Mark Montigny of New Bedford straightforwardly described the practice as “thievery,” and the issue now goes to private negotiation between House and Senate leadership to reconcile differences between the budget bills.
Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday said she hasn’t looked at the Senate proposal or considered the issue generally.
“It just hasn’t been something that I’ve focused on,” Healey said in a brief scrum with reporters after the unveiling of former Chief Justice Gants’ portrait. “I will, and I’ll get back to you with an answer, but I haven’t to date.”
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