Sidebar Summer 2018 - 9

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BOOK REVIEW:
"I Say Again"
by The Honorable
J. William Ditter, Jr.

Red Barn Press. 228 pp. $19.95
Review By Peter F. Vaira, Esq.
This is a book written by a lawyerjudge, but not a book about the law or
the legal profession. J. William Ditter
Jr., 96, a federal district court judge for
48 years, still practicing and living in
western Montgomery County, writes
of the country that was America from
the 1930s to the present. This is not
a book of nostalgia or a history book,
but commentary in various forms: in
poems to his wife, sermons to his church,
memos to members of the bar, and a few
of his legal opinions. Included also are his
Christmas letters to friends and family.
This book should be read a few pages
at a time, after nightfall, with a glass of
port or sherry. It is somewhat in the style
of Charles Krauthammer's best seller
Things That Matter. In his introduction
to his poems to his wife of 60 years, he
describes bringing her home to die after
the doctors could do no more, to a house
she designed and created. Here is an
excerpt from "When," written after her
death:
When the shadows lengthen and
darkness closes about me,
My last conscious thought will be
of you,
And how I was blessed,
Blessed with you, my wife,
And how I missed you.
He took a leave of absence of several
years from the bench to care for her in
her illness. After she died, his colleagues
on the federal bench urged him to return,
which he did. He still sits on the federal
bench, with an active caseload.

Some members of the bar may
describe Judge Ditter as a country judge.
He did not come to the bench from a
giant law firm, but rather served as an
assistant district attorney for several years
and as a Common Pleas Court judge in
Montgomery County for six years before
being appointed to the federal bench.
As a federal prosecutor, I once appeared
before him to seek permission to install a
wiretap on a suspect's phone. I told him
I would report back to him every five
days to let him know whether we should
continue. He directed me to report to
him every day. We need more country
judges.
Also here is an opinion he issued as
a county court judge, involving a child
custody dispute between a divorced
couple. The father did not have the
money to provide the children the
lifestyle his well-to-do ex-wife could give
them. In Judge Ditter's words, "All the
father could provide was his continued
interest, his devotion, his companionship,
and his sense of spiritual values." He
followed the children's request that they
remain with their father.
His annual Christmas letters are
reason alone to buy the book. Judge
Ditter comments on old customs, new
customs, and the changing face of
America. He quotes a fictional cousin
named Mitzy, whose personal patois
recalls the first Mayor Daley of Chicago
or Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees.
Mitzy is totally disorganized, often arrives
a day late for holiday celebrations, and
makes remarks such as, "That's painting

the barn after the horse is stolen" or, "Like
it says in the Bible, love your neighbor by
yourself." Of her oldest son, she writes,
"He spends money like fish out of water."
One of his church sermons includes
this passage: "What will I say when Jesus
arrives, probably at the wrong time, and
asks me, 'Why have you not used the
gifts I gave you? Why have you neglected
me?' " Ditter responds, "I hope I have an
answer" and asks the congregation, "What
about you?" He often concluded his
part in public functions with "God bless
America."
And as one of his former law clerks
says, this book "overflows with creativity
and humor." Judge Ditter describes being
asked to speak to a group of third-graders.
Several days later, he received a handmade
card from each student, complete with
drawings of, say, a gavel, a black robe, a
judge's bench. One third-grader wrote:
"Dear Judge, thank you for coming to
our class. I couldn't draw a picture of you
so I drawed Bugs Bunny instead." Judge
Ditter comments: "And it was pretty good
picture, too."
The America described in this book
changed over the years, with good changes,
and some not so good. As long as we have
people such as Judge Ditter willing to
serve in public life, we need not worry.
As cousin Mitzy says in the judge's 2000
Christmas letter, "A word to the wise is not
needed."
Peter Vaira is an attorney practicing in
Philadelphia and a former United States
attorney for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania.
*This article was previously published in The
Philadelphia Inquirer on May 25, 2018.
The article is republished with permission
from the author.
SUMMER 2018 9
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