Center Street from Main Avenue to 11th Avenue will be closed from 7 a.m. until noon Monday while the expanded Warren County Justice Center is dedicated.

A Bowling Green High School graduate with a long, distinguished law career will help dedicate Warren Countys new $32 million justice center. John S. Palmore, former chief justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, will be the keynote speaker at a dedication ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. Monday at the Warren County Justice Center. It was no accident that the ceremony was scheduled for Monday, which is Law Day. The holiday is reserved to remind Americans to appreciate their liberties and rededicate to the ideals of equality and justice under the law ideals Palmore spent most of his 82 years working to uphold. Any lawyer that exists today in Kentucky has heard of this man and read his writings, Warren County Attorney Mike Caudill said. Palmore left Western Kentucky University after two years to attend University of Louisville Law School, where he graduated cum laude in 1939. He is also a graduate of Harvard Universitys School of Business Administration. He began private law practice in 1939 in Henderson where he later served as city attorney. He was elected commonwealths attorney for the 5th Judicial District in 1955, and as that term ended, he was elected as justice to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the states highest court at the time. He served as chief justice in that court in 1966 and 1973. A judicial amendment that reorganized the court system and established the Kentucky Supreme Court took effect in 1976, when Palmores last term as justice began, and he was chief justice from 1977 to 1982.During his 23 years as a member of the states highest court, he contributed more than 800 published opinions to Kentucky law. Palmore resumed private practice after leaving the bench and retired at age 75.His interest in law was instilled initially by his school buddy Maxey Harlin, who was about to go into law school and gave Palmore a tour of the courthouse one day, explaining how the system worked. Palmore also greatly admired Judge John B. Rodes, a circuit judge and former Bowling Green mayor who had partnered in a law firm with Harlins father. If ever there was (a role model) for me, it was Judge Rodes, Palmore said. Palmore, as chairman of the Review Commission that supervised the drafting of what is now the Kentucky Penal Code, is credited with playing a major role in the transition of the newer court system. Changes in the district court system met with particularly bitter resistance from many politicians and local officials who had, until then, controlled the lower courts of the state, Caudill said. Several other things have changed in the justice system over the years besides the reorganization, Palmore said. Among those changes are the number of attorneys, particularly female ones, the volume of law practice that deals with administrative regulations and the volume of lawsuits. I think the general public is a great deal more inclined to bring lawsuits. Theyre a lot more litigious than they used to be. … I think there are a lot of frivolous lawsuits brought, he said. Its much more geared to plaintiffs cases than it used to be. Palmore, whose wife Carol also practiced law, remembers when President Jimmy Carter wanted to appoint a female judge in the U.S. District Court for the eastern district of Kentucky, and it was extremely difficult to find one with the background and experience needed who would move to Covington. There are many, many more women lawyers than there used to be and good ones, he said. Despite all the changes of the past, there are a few more that Palmore would like to see. I would rather see judges appointed than elected, he said. Whenever theres a case that has great public sentiment in one direction or another or when the case affects someone whos politically powerful, a judge that depends on being elected to stay on the bench will have that pressure on him, Palmore said. Then youre under the gun, and most people cant stand up to that. Palmore plans to discuss some of the changes hes seen as well as current issues in the justice system at Mondays dedication of a justice center that will be nearly six years in the making. Discussion of a new justice center began in October 1994, and ground was broken at the Center Street site on July 3, 1997, Court Administrator Jim Gildersleeve said. The project included construction of a new building, which opened in October, and reconstruction of the existing justice center, which is expected to be finished in June.