Bert Dexter Ryland was a state Ninth Judicial District Court judge in Alexandria, Louisiana

Alexandria, Louisiana

Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....

, having served from 1990 until his death.

In September 1996, Ryland was nominated for outstanding jurist by the Alexandria Bar Association. He died a few weeks after being hospitalized in the Rapides Medical Center with pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

. Earlier in the year, Ryland issued a controversial ruling regarding the selection by the board of trustees of the new president of Louisiana College

Louisiana College

Louisiana College is a private institution of higher education located in Pineville, Louisiana, affiliated with the Louisiana Baptist Convention, serving a student body of approximately 1,300 students. The college operates on a semester system, with two shorter summer terms...

, a Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

-affiliated institution in Pineville

Pineville, Louisiana

Pineville is a city in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is adjacent to the city of Alexandria, and is part of that city's Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,829 at the 2000 census....

.

A Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

, Ryland won the "Division E" judgeship in his state's jungle primary

Jungle primary

A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for elected office run in the same primary regardless of political party. Under this system, the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the next round, as in a runoff election...

 held on November 6, 1990, by defeating Bernard Kramer, a personal injury lawyer in Alexandria and also a Democrat. Ryland received 18,602 votes (63 percent) from 108 precincts in Rapides Parish to Kramer's 10,799 (37 percent). Ryland faced minimal or no opposition for his judgeship thereafter. All of the state judgeships in Rapides Parish are held by Democrats.

Early years and education

Ryland was born to C. Bert Ryland and the former Velma Burns (1918-1999) in La Porte in northwestern Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

. The Rylands afterwards returned to their home in Alexandria, and he graduated from Bolton High School

Bolton High School (Louisiana)

Bolton High School is a secondary educational institution located in the Garden District of Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the largest city in central Louisiana. The school is named for its benefactor, James W...

 in the city's Garden District in 1959. Afterwards, Ryland, who went by his middle name "Dexter", attended Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...

 in Baton Rouge. He received his Juris Doctor

Juris Doctor

Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...

 from LSU in 1965, when he was the winner of the LSU Moot Court competition. In 1968, Ryland became president of the Young Lawyers Association. He was treasurer of the Alexandria Bar Association from 1974 to 1975 and a charter member of the Alexandria Young Lawyers Association.

In 1987, he was inducted into the LSU "Law School Hall of Fame". Prior to his judicial election, Ryland was the first assistant district attorney for Rapides Parish (1985-1990).

He had served earlier as assistant city attorney for Pineville during the administration of then Mayor Floyd W. Smith, Jr.

Floyd Smith (Louisiana politician)

Floyd William Smith, Jr. , was a businessman from Winnfield, Louisiana, who served as the Democratic mayor of Pineville in Rapides Parish from 1966-1970. He was a maternal second cousin of former U.S. Representative Speedy O...

 Afterwards he was assistant city attorney and then city attorney for Alexandria. Ryland was a member of the Exchange Club, Masonic Lodge

Masonic Lodge

This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...

, and Shriners

Shriners

The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, also commonly known as Shriners and abbreviated A.A.O.N.M.S., established in 1870, is an appendant body to Freemasonry, based in the United States...

 and was an avid hunter and outdoorsman.

The Louisiana College case, 2005

On March 18, 2005, Judge Ryland upheld the actions of the Louisiana College trustees when they elected the theologically conservative

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

, Joe W. Aguillard (Ed.D), a former school superintendent in Beauregard Parish, as the new president to succeed the retiring Dr. Rory Lee.

The dispute, brought forward in a suit by former LC faculty members, was over the election process used by the trustees. LC by-laws provided that a committee was to be appointed to review candidates and to make a recommendation to the trustees. The committee recommended Malcolm Yarnell of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a private, non-profit institution of higher education, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention...

 in Fort Worth

Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

, who subsequently received an offer from the college. Yarnell and the trustees never reached an agreement on contract terms. As a result, the trustees expanded the selection committee from nine to seventeen members.

The change shifted the composition of the committee, which then nominated Aguillard as a candidate for the presidency. Aguillard was supported by the LC trustee faction which favored a move toward theological conservatism. He was, however, unacceptable to the LC faculty, which voted 52-12 against his appointment and also issued a vote of no confidence in the trustees.

Ryland rejected the first two arguments in opposition to the lawsuit: that the plaintiffs lacked standing and that the matter was outside state jurisdiction because it involved the exercise of religious freedom under the First Amendment

First Amendment to the United States Constitution

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...

 to the United States Constitution

United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

. Judge Ryland agreed that the college had not followed the procedures outlined in its by-laws, but he concluded that the by-laws did not explicitly preclude nominations from the floor at the trustees meeting. The judge also noted that the by-laws did not require the trustees to accept the committee nomination.

In oral arguments, Ryland said that LC, which he attended in his early years, "needed a president of the college, and they needed one fast." The by-laws specifically provided that the committee could not be reconstituted until after the new president was in office, clearly indicating that the committee's nomination not be tampered with. By permitting nominations from the floor, Judge Ryland has effectively permitted the committee to be effectively reconstituted, albeit at the last moment. Consequently, Judge Ryland's conclusion that the committee structure is not inconsistent with floor nominations strikes us as being a construction that simply can’t be reconciled with the notion of a committee that can’t be altered once it is created.

Those opposed to Aguillard's accession to the LC presidency contended that Judge Ryland’s decision demonstrates why attention to detail is critical in the drafting of institutional by-laws. The opponents said that boards should draft a charter for each appointed committee, with itemization of its jurisdiction, duties, and powers.

Plaintiffs, represented by the Alexandria attorney Jay Bolen, appealed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, but the court posthumously upheld Judge Ryland's decision in April 2006.

Ryland's last rites

Ryland was cremated. Memorial services were held on July 1, 2005, at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Roman Catholic Church in Alexandria. He was survived by his wife, Paulette Hebert Ryland (born December 23, 1952) of Alexandria; their children, Clifton Bert Ryland, Melicia Soileau Ryland, and Amelia Marydell Ryland; and three children from a previous marriage to Louise Lapeze of Baton Rouge—John Dexter Ryland and wife, Carrie Ryland of Alexandria, Robert Garnett Ryland and wife, Irina Ryland of Silver Spring, Maryland, and Julie Elaine Ryland Prender and husband, Joel B. Prender of Dallas. He was survived by a brother, Rhett Robert Ryland and a sister, Sonya Dell Ryland Millican, both of Baton Rouge. He was survived by his three grandchildren, Isabelle Burnum Ryland, Catherine Garnett Ryland, and Andrew Dexter Ryland.

Rebel Garnett Ryland (born April 22, 1953), an attorney in Columbia

Columbia, Louisiana

Columbia is a town in and the parish seat of Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 477 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Columbia is located at ....

 in Caldwell Parish died eighteen days before his older brother, Judge Ryland. Rebel Ryland had practiced law for twenty-five years, much of that time in the firm of the late Governor John McKeithen

John McKeithen

John Julian McKeithen was the 49th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1964 to 1972. A Democrat from the town of Columbia, he was the first governor of his state in the twentieth century to serve two consecutive terms...

. Like his brother, Rebel Ryland was also a graduate of Bolton High School and the LSU Law School. He died of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.