Thanks to everyone who responded.
The law-lib archives actually did have the
discussion I remembered, but I was spelling
"Themis" incorrectly in my search.
The consensus of the responses is that the
Lady Justice as depicted blindfolded (and
sometimes without a blindfold) and holding
scales in law related institutions is a
representation of Themis, the Greek god of
justice who did not have a blindfold in
antiquity. The blindfold, according to this
consensus, was an innovation of 16th century
German artists who added the blindfold in
irony. This consensus among law-librarians
who responded to my post apparently derives
its version of events from "Nevada Heritage
News" vol 2, #1, May 1987 which I have not
read. See Paul Healey's post on March 25,
1997 at
http://www.kentlaw.edu/cgi-bin/ldn_news/-h+law.listserv.law-lib+22708
An alternative version gives the blindfold
far more antiquated (and, one might argue,
noble) origins. It holds that Lady Justice
is the Roman analog to Themis: Justicia
(sp?). In Roman myth, there is an account of
Justicia settling a dispute among the gods
while wearing a blindfold. This view is
presented in Dennis E. Curtis & Judith
Resnik, "Images of Justice," 96 Yale Law
Journal 1727-1772 (1987) of which I have
read only a small part. (Any students of
Greek mythology know whether there is a
similar Greek myth?) Thanks to G. LeGrande
Fletcher of Brigham Young University's
Howard W. Hunter Law Library and Stephen R.
Jordan of the State Law Library of Montana
for alerting me to that one.
Here is a summary of additional material on
the subject:
The Arkansas Judiciary home page contains
the following quotation:
"Justice is justly represented blind,
because she sees no difference in the
parties concerned. She has but one scale and
weight, for rich and poor, great and small.
Her sentence is not guided by the person,
but the cause.... Impartiality is the life
of justice, as that is of government."
-- William Penn
Thanks to Jacqueline S. Wright of the
Supreme Court Library.
Stephen Jordan also provided the following
cites which I have not yet had a chance to
review:
52 LLJ 233
64 LLJ 249
73 LLJ 744
82 LLJ 197
(These last three are also cited in Paul
Healey's post.)
Thank you Stephen.
A number of others called or wrote to
suggest an Internet search for "Themis"
which was helpful. Thank you all.
Christopher Carr
Library Services Manager
Howard, Smith & Levin LLP
1330 Avenue of the Americas
New York NY 10019
212 841 1085