I’ve commented on this already, but it bears repeating with the news that Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson is leaving the bench soon.

I wish the chief well as he goes on with the rest of his life and, presumably, his legal career.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/09/07/playlist-had-enough/

My fondest memory of the chief justice has nothing to do with his knowledge of jurisprudence — but it has everything to do with his sense of decorum and propriety outside the courtroom.

Chief Justice Jefferson came a’callin’ at the newspaper where I worked a few years ago. He was running for re-election and wanted to visit with the editorial page “staff” — that would have been yours truly — to make the case for sending him back to office for another term.

We sat at a large conference table, along with a young aide who was traveling with the chief justice.

The aide, a woman of about 24 or 25, was sending text messages while Jefferson and I talked about court matters. The chief justice stopped talking suddenly and asked his aide what she was doing. “I’m sending a text message,” she said. “Put the device down,” Jefferson said. “But this is important,” she responded, to which the chief justice said in a tone approaching anger, “Then take it outside!” She left the room.

I thanked the chief justice for his attention to good manners.

And I am thanking him now for his service to the Texas judicial system.