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Justice A. Christian Compton Papers, 1974-2006, Accession #00028264, Supreme Court of Virginia Archives, Virginia State Law Library, Richmond, Va.
These papers were transferred to the Virginia State Law Library from Justice Compton's chambers in 2006.
A. Christian Compton was appointed to the Supreme Court of Virginia September 1, 1974, by Governor Mills E. Godwin. He was reelected to the court February 1, 1987, and February 1, 1999, and served as a senior justice from 2000 until his death in 2006. He presided over a case that defined "death" as brain death.
Chiefly case files from Compton's tenure as a justice (1974-2000)and a senior justice (2000-2006) on the Supreme Court of Virginia. Also contains files, mainly memos and correspondence, documenting Compton's administrative work for the court overseeing building issues, 1974-1999; the Virginia State Law Library and efforts to establish a Supreme Court of Virginia Historical Society, 1982-2002 (bulk 1996-2002), foreign attorney applications, 1974-1986, and information about U.S. Supreme Court rulings on reciprocity and bar admissions; corrections to Virginia and Southeast Reports, 1977-1982; and a House of Delegates Sub-Committee Study of Appellate Review of Civil Cases (HJR 329), 1989-1990.
The papers also contain files on the Virginia Bar Association Appellate Capacity Project, 1987-1989; minutes of the Virginia Bar Association Judicial Section, 1996-2000; canons on judicial ethics, (correspondence and clippings pertaining to changes in laws about membership in private organizations practicing discrimination), 1989-1991; and a copy of a master plan for the Office of the Executive Secretary, 1974. Correspondence with clerks includes a copy of Compton's response to a national survey, 1982, about hiring practices for law clerks, and Supreme Court of Virginia guidelines for clerks, as well as Compton's particular guidelines for his clerks.
Box and folder list available at repository.
Additional records (approximately 6.0 c. ft. of published opinions, articles, and newspaper clippings about opinions, orders from the Clerk's office, letters and exhibits from case files) were separated by order of the Supreme Court of Virginia in 2007. These materials, with the exception of the published opinions, were transferred to the Washington and Lee University Law Library in September 2011.