Facing the Klieg Lights: Understanding the "Good Moral Character"

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264 AKRON LAW REVIEW [40:255
wife. 88 After Field ordered the wife’s removal for contempt, Judge
Terry pulled out a bowie-knife and declared that “no man living should
touch his wife.” 89 Terry then knocked out a U.S. Marshall’s tooth as
courtroom personnel tried to restrain him. 90 Terry was subsequently
sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for contempt and was
disbarred. 91
Justice Field was no stranger to disbarment either, though his
problems came far earlier in his career. In 1850, a young Field was
disbarred after he ignored a judge’s order for silence, calling the judge
“a ‘d——d old jackass.’” 92 Then, an armed Field started stalking the
judge, including sending “a provocative message that he was prepared to
kill the judge if he ‘came at (Field) in a threatening manner.’” 93 Not to
be deterred, “[s]hortly after readmission to the bar, Field was again
disbarred for similar disrespect in the courtroom of the same judge.” 94
Field presciently had protection when he next visited California less
than a year after he had Terry arrested in his court. 95 In re Neagle 96
describes Terry’s confrontation of Field and his bodyguard, Deputy U.S.
Marshal David Neagle, during a railway trip. 97 During Field’s stop in
Lathrop, California, 98 Terry punched Field’s face twice, knocking him
out of his seat before a crowd of railway passengers, when Neagle shot
and killed the unarmed Terry. 99
Field and Neagle fled before a lynch mob gathered. 100 Justice Field
was arrested, his third arrest, in San Francisco’s federal court building. 101
The federal circuit court issued a writ of habeas corpus for both Neagle
88. In re Terry, 128 U.S. 289, syllabus (1888) (denying a writ of habeas corpus by former
Chief Justice Terry objecting to his six month sentence for contempt); See also Cunningham v.
Neagle, 135 U.S. 1, 42-43 (1890) (finding that Sarah Althea Hill, now Mrs. Terry, forged her
marriage degree and committed fraud and perjury).
89. Neagle, 135 U.S. at 45-46. Terry violently resisted, including trying to draw a bowieknife,
and Mrs. Terry tried but failed to get access to a pistol. Id. See also Roots, supra note 36, at
28 (citing SWISHER & FIELD, supra note 84, at 333-34.); Terry, 128 U.S. at 305-06.
90. 135 U.S. 1, 42-43 (1890).
91. Roots, supra note 36, at 28. Mrs. Terry was imprisoned for one month and both Terrys
were under federal indictment for their activities. See Neagle, 135 U.S. at 45-46.
92. Roots, supra note 36, at 28 & n.62 (citing SWISHER & FIELD, supra note 84, at 38-39).
93. Id. at 28 (citing SWISHER, & FIELD, supra note 84, at 40).
94. Id. (citing SWISHER & FIELD, supra note 84, at 42-43).
95. Id. at 28-29 (citing Neagle, 135 U.S. at 48-51).
96. Neagle, 135 U.S. at 1.
97. Id. at 55-56; Roots, supra note 36, at 29 (citing Neagle, 135 U.S. at 44).
98. Roots, supra note 36, at 29 (citing SWISHER & FIELD, supra note 84, at 348).
99. Id.
100. Id.
101. Id. (citing SWISHER & FIELD, supra note 84, at 352).