The Importance of Building Fires: Lessons Learned as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

Humility is an important judicial trait.Someone who already knows all the answers, or thinks he does, is not going to explore the law and listen at oral argument in the same manner as someone who is open to argument.Indeed, the ability to genuinely and openly hear both sides of a case is a form of humility-one that is perhaps most valuable to a judge.Judges should also be humble because it is remarkable how many different ways one can perform the functions of a judge, even when there are only a handful of tasks that judges perform.Appellate judges read, write, ask questions, and argue.Trial judges add to this list the skills of courtroom and docket management.There are some wrong answers, but no right or absolute answers about how to perform these duties.As I like to say, on a court of five judges, there are five different answers to every question.This too, is a source of humility.In this light, I am wary of offering advice to judges and lawyers, although this is what I have been asked to do by providing a retrospective on my fifteen years on the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, including the last four as Chief Judge.I have chosen to do so in two sections.Section I is academic in tone and describes the role, purpose, and composition of the USCAAF, the Article I federal court that * Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.