Chief Judge of Mega-City One
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The Chief Judge of Mega-City One is dictator and head of state of the fictional future city of around 400 million people in 22nd-century America, in the Judge Dredd comic strip from 2000 AD. The present chief judge is Chief Judge Barbara Hershey.
Chief Judge is the highest rank in the Mega-City One Justice Department. The founder of the Judge System, Chief Judge Fargo, originally conceived this office as no more than the head of an elite police force whose members had powers to summarily convict and sentence criminals in 21st-century America, but following a coup in 2070 the US Justice Department took control of the United States and formed a new government under the autocratic rule of the chief judge. Since then the chief judges have wielded immense power, although some years after the coup the USA split into three independent city-states, including Mega-City One (although the three cities had already enjoyed considerable autonomy since 2052). Other mega-cities around the world adopted similar systems of government. The remainder of this article is concerned solely with Judge Dredd's city.
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[edit] History
Between 2070 and 2117 the chief judge was the ex officio chairman of the Council of Five, which in 2070 became the highest legislative body. He presided over the Council's meetings and could veto any decision with which he disagreed. He could also appoint and dismiss councillors at will. The council usually included a deputy chief judge, who would automatically succeed to the highest office in the event of the death of the chief judge. (This occurred when Chief Judge Goodman died and was succeeded by his deputy, Judge Cal.) If there was no deputy then the remaining members of the Council elected a new chief judge from among themselves. (Judge Silver was chosen in this way.)
Unfortunately, in Mega-City One's history there have been occasions when chief judges have abused their considerable power. When Chief Judge McGruder suspended the Council of Five in 2112 and ruled alone there was no mechanism for legally removing her from office when her mental health deteriorated and her decisions became increasingly erratic. She eventually resigned of her own accord in 2116, but by this time the undesirability of vesting too much authority in one individual had become apparent even to the hardline right-wing Judges of Mega-City One.
Therefore in 2117 some significant changes were made to the system by her new successor, Chief Judge Volt. Firstly, he reformed the Council of Five by removing the chief judge from the council (although it is not clear how their respective powers are divided between the chief judge and the Council). Since then the deputy chief judge has chaired all meetings of the Council of Five. (The first to do so was DCJ Herriman.) This has given some measure of independence to the Council in its deliberations, and provided a constitutional method by which an incapable chief judge can be lawfully removed from office.
Secondly, the law was changed to make chief judges elected by the 400 Senior Judges of the city, rather than by the Council alone. This innovation had first been introduced ad hoc by McGruder herself in 2116 since there was neither a council nor a deputy chief judge during her term of office, and it was unpopular with many judges at the time, but Volt made it a permanent rule. Also, the deputy chief judge is no longer guaranteed the automatic right of succession to the top job. Under the new system the deputy only becomes acting chief judge in the event of a vacancy in the highest office, but must still be subsequently elected in his own right. This procedure was first invoked when Volt himself died and Deputy Chief Judge Hershey became acting chief judge in 2121, winning the second election to chief judge in 2122. This second reform was deemed necessary because McGruder's own succession to the job in 2112 - without any vote being undertaken - had later been challenged as unconstitutional by her predecessor in that office, Judge Silver, resulting in a constitutional crisis. By making this second reform Volt ensured that future chief judges should not have their authority doubted, while at the same time his first reform made the chief judge accountable in the exercise of that authority.
[edit] Chief Judges
[edit] Chief Judges of the United States
- Fargo (2031 to 2051) Resigned
- Solomon (2051 to 2052)
[edit] Chief Judges of Mega-City One
- Solomon (2052 to 2057) Resigned
- Goodman (2057 to 2101) Assassinated
- Cal (2101) Assassinated
- Griffin (2101 to 2104) Assassinated
- McGruder (2104 to 2108) Resigned
- Silver (2108 to 2112) Assassinated
(Between 2112 and 2113 an undead Silver was chief judge de jure and McGruder chief judge de facto.)
- McGruder (2113 to 2116) Resigned
- Volt (2116 to 2121) Committed suicide
- Hershey (2122 to date) Incumbent
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[edit] Deputy Chief Judges
(This list is technically incomplete, but includes all relevant characters who have appeared in the comic strip.)
- Goodman alone (2051 to 2057) Became chief judge
- Fodder (???? to 2100) Murdered
- Cal (2100 to 2101) Succeeded to chief judge
- Fish (2101) Assassinated
- Grampus (2101) Assassinated
- Pepper (2101 to 2103) Assassinated
- Herriman (2116 to 2120) Assassinated
- Hershey (2120 to 2122) Elected chief judge
[edit] See also
- Judge Greel (acting chief judge in 2116)
- Judge Grice (usurper)
