James E. Bolin

James Edwin Bolin, Sr.
Louisiana State Representative for Webster Parish
In office 1940–1944
Preceded by	Drayton R. Boucher
Succeeded by	C.W. Thompson
District Attorney, 26th Judicial District of Louisiana
In office December 14, 1948 – October 1, 1952
Preceded by	Arthur M. Wallace
Succeeded by	Louis H. Padgett, Jr.
Judge, 26th Judicial District Court of Louisiana
In office October 1, 1952 – 1960
Preceded by	J. Frank McInnis
Succeeded by	Two judgeships: O. E. Price Enos C. McClendon, Jr.
Judge, Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal
In office 1960–1978
Preceded by	New position
Chief Judge, Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal
In office April 25, 1975 – December 31, 1978
Preceded by	H. Welborn Ayres
Personal details
Born	(1914-08-26)August 26, 1914 Doyline, Webster Parish, Louisiana, USA
Died	March 25, 2002(2002-03-25) (aged 87) Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Mary Eloise Martin Bolin (1913-2007; married, 1937-his death)
Children	James Bolin, Jr. Bruce M. Bolin Beth Bolin Falk Becky Bolin Maupin
Residence	Minden, Webster Parish, Louisiana
Alma mater	Minden High School Louisiana State University Louisiana State University Law Center
Occupation	Attorney
(1) Bolin and his son, Bruce M. Bolin, held the positions of Louisiana state representative and judge of the 26th Judicial Court – thirty-eight years apart. (2) Bolin, who obtained a Bronze Star in the United States Army, was among several Louisiana state legislators who left their posts for military duty during World War II.

James Edwin Bolin, Sr. (August 26, 1914 – March 25, 2002), was an American jurist and politician who served as a judge of the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal. He was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Minden, the seat of government of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana.

Background

Bolin was one of ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Bolin in the village of Doyline in south Webster Parish. E. H. Bolin was a member of the Webster Parish School Board and the subject of a biographical sketch in North Louisiana History.^[1] Bolin attended school in Doyline and later transferred to Minden, where he graduated as the class president in 1931 from Minden High School. His name was misspelled "Bolen" on the graduation program.^[2]

Bolin then procured his undergraduate degree in 1935 from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He obtained his legal degree from the LSU Law Center in 1937 and maintained a private practice in Minden from 1937 to 1942 and again from 1946 to 1952. For a time in the late 1980s, Bolin practiced law in Minden —estates, divorces, and automobile accident claims, primarily—with his younger son, Bruce M. Bolin, who later moved to Bossier City.^[3]

In 1937, Bolin wed his Minden High School classmate, the former Mary Eloise Martin (October 30, 1913 – September 20, 2007).She was a 1935 graduate of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston and a former high school English teacher. The Bolins had two daughters, Beth Bolin Falk and Becky Bolin Maupin, and another lawyer son, James E. Bolin, Jr. (born September 10, 1941) of Shreveport.^[4]

Legislator and soldier

Bolin served in the state House during the administration of Governor Sam Houston Jones, who in 1940 proposed the creation of a state crime commission, which consisted of the governor, his executive counsel, and the state attorney general. With a $1 million appropriation, the agency was commissioned to pursue those who had stolen state funds or property. Jones suggested that up to $4 million might be recovered. Bolin sought to reduce the appropriation to $250,000. State Senator Lloyd Hendrick of Shreveport wanted to establish a legislative commission, rather than an executive body. Nevertheless, the measure easily passed both houses and was signed into law. A few lawmakers loyal to then former Governor Earl Kemp Long charged that the commission gave too much power to the governor and was "tyrannical" in nature. They successfully sued, and the Louisiana Supreme Court declared the Jones commission unconstitutional.^[5]

From 1942 to 1946, while still a state representative for two years remaining in his term, Bolin served in the European Theatre of World War II, including England, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany. He received the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the French Croix de Guerre, the Combat Infantryman Badge, and the European Theater of Operations Ribbon, with four battle stars.^[6] After the war, he served with the prosecution team at the historic war crime trials at Nuremberg, Germany.^[7][8]

Bolin while overseas in war did not seek reelection to the Louisiana House and was succeeded by C. W. Thompson of Doyline, then the president of the Webster Parish School Board. Thompson ran unopposed in 1944 for Bolin's seat. Bolin practiced law in Minden prior to his military service and from 1946 to 1948 in Springhill in northern Webster Parish.^[6]

Judicial career

From December 14, 1948, to October 1, 1952, Bolin served as the district attorney for Webster and Bossier parishes.^[9] In the DA race, Bolin defeated Bossier Parish attorney and later state representative Ford E. Stinson, 6,432 to 5,618. His margin of victory came from his own Webster Parish^[10] Bolin was known for the prosecution of gambling and racketeering.^[11] In September 1952, Bolin won a special election to the 26th Judicial District Court bench. He was reelected without opposition in 1954.^[12] In 1954, Bolin sentenced Minden Mayor John T. David to 120 days on the Webster Parish Penal Farm for two bootlegging misdemeanors. The convictions were upheld by the Louisiana Supreme Court.^[13] Bolin left the district judgeship in 1960, when he was subsequently elected to a new seat on the 20-parish Second Circuit Court of Appeal, where he served until his retirement in 1978.^[8][12]

On May 12, 1964, Judge Bolin was invited to Baton Rouge to administer the oath of office to incoming Governor John McKeithen; C. H. "Sammy" Downs, a former state senator from Rapides Parish and an aide and advisor to McKeithen, was the master of ceremonies for the festivities.^[14]

His younger son, Bruce Bolin, served in the same Louisiana House seat which Bolin had previously held. Bruce Bolin was a representative from 1978, when he won a special election to succeed the retiring R. Harmon Drew, Sr., until 1990, when he resigned from the House to begin his tenure in the same district court judgeship previously held by his father.

Judge Bolin opposed antiwar demonstrators at the height of the Vietnam War. In an address before a civic group entitled "The Spirit of Rebellion", the judge decried the breakdown in law and order across the nation stemming in part from discontent over the controversial war.^[15]Bolin's social commentary was echoed by two other state judges, Fred W. Jones, Jr. of Ruston^[16] and George W. Hardy, Jr., a former mayor of Shreveport. In a 1964 speech before the Shreveport Bar Association, Hardy similarly warned against "extremist" individuals and groups who would thwart the processes of law and endanger the well-being of the nation.^[17]

Bolin tried to educate constituents on the challenges facing the justice system. "Justice is everyone's business. Courts aren't here just for lawyers and judges - they are for all citizens. ... Our judicial branch is not as good as it could be; although it is constantly working to improve. Without sacrificing basic civil or criminal rights of the people, we must streamline our courts to keep current and to avoid a virtual bureaucracy in our court system," he told a civic gathering in 1977.^[18]

From April 1975 until his retirement in 1978, Bolin was the chief judge of the appeals court, having succeeded H. Welborn Ayres, who retired.^[12]

Judge Bolin was seriously injured in a two-vehicle accident on Louisiana Highway 1 north of Shreveport on Christmas Day, 1978, just a week before his retirement from the circuit court. The accident occurred nine days after the election of his son, Bruce, to the Louisiana House of Representatives.^[19]

Honors

In 1975, U.S. Representative Joe Waggonner of Plain Dealing in Bossier Parish, urged then U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., to nominate Judge Bolin to the United States Supreme Court. Waggonner said that his fellow Louisianan exhibited the "highest degree of judicial excellence." Ford, however, tapped Chicago jurist John Paul Stevens for the seat vacated by William O. Douglas.^[20]

In 1986, Bolin was honored by the Louisiana House for his service more than four decades earlier. One of his House colleagues, Bill Dodd, a former lieutenant governor and state superintendent of education, praised the judge, accordingly:

[Judge Bolin as a legislator] sponsored and supported legislation for civil service, public bid laws, voting machines, creation of a wildlife and fisheries department, an independent forestry service, dedication of severance taxes to public schools, and the de-politicalization of the LSU Board of Supervisors.^[21]

Bolin died in 2002 at the age of eighty-seven in an assisted living facility in Shreveport. He is honored through the naming of Bolin Hall at the Louisiana Army National Guard installation at Camp Minden, formerly part of the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant.^[22]

References