For Deborah Ramirez, the spouse of the late Supreme Judicial Courtroom Chief Justice Ralph Gants, her husband had an internal compass that was “pointed toward true north.”
“Though he sometimes got lost in the swamps, chasms, and deserts along the way, like all of us, his journey had one purpose, one destination, justice, and he was determined to get there,” Ramirez stated Wednesday contained in the John Adams Courthouse.
Judges, attorneys, lawmakers, and others gathered on the courthouse for the disclosing of a portrait of Gants that may dangle contained in the constructing. Gants died in 2020 at 65 from a coronary heart assault and his demise despatched shockwaves by the Massachusetts authorized neighborhood.
Roger Michel, the manager director of the Institute for Digital Archaeology, funded portrait’s creation.
“This painting offers up Chief Justice Gants as an example of who we are and what we value to generations of lawyers who will never know us,” Michel stated.
Gants turned chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Courtroom in 2014 and was sworn in by then-Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat. He was appointed as an affiliate justice on the court docket 5 years earlier than that and had served for greater than 11 years as an affiliate justice within the Superior Courtroom.
Former Supreme Judicial Courtroom Chief Justice Roderick Eire stated Gants was a “visionary and an advocate for justice.”
“Ralph Gants combined public service and professional accomplishment at the highest level, in ways that have been of great importance to the state of Massachusetts, and the world at large. Not only was he a student of the law, but also of humanity,” Eire stated. “And one of his virtues was that he never took himself too seriously. He always understood that his work was important, not himself.”
Gov. Maura Healey, a former legal professional normal and lawyer, stated she was struck by Gants’ “deep and demonstrated conviction around the need to ensure access to justice.”
“In so many ways, Chief Justice Gants made the law and our courts more humane and more just. And as we know, as Massachusetts goes, so eventually goes to the rest of the country, starting back with that John Adams fellow. So his work will continue to make our state, our country, and our world a better place for years to come,” she stated.
