[citation needed] When Howard began his clerkship with Justice Black, the balance on the Court had recently tipped toward the liberal side.
Howard found himself at Black's elbow when the Justice penned some of the Warren Court's most important decisions, including Gideon v. Wainwright and Griffin v. School Board of Prince Edward County.
In 1968, Governor Mills E. Godwin, Jr. created a blue-ribbon commission charged with revising Virginia's Constitution, a post-Reconstruction document dating from 1902.
Important changes included an assurance that every resident has access to an education, a pointed response to "massive resistance," an anti-integration movement during which some school systems opted to shut down rather than admit black students.
[3] Studied by other states and countries, Virginia's Constitution has endured, in large part because Howard helped ensure that the document was kept simple and to the point.
He has been frequently consulted by governors, legislators, attorneys general, and other public officials on a range of constitutional and legal matters.
The award commended Howard for advancing, through his character, work, and personal example, the ideals and objectives for which Jefferson founded the University.
An early article in the Virginia Law Review explored the jurisprudence of Justice Black through the lens of cases arising out of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
[5] The media welcomes Howard's ability to distill difficult and lengthy legal materials into simple language.
He has compared notes with revisers at work on new constitutions in Brazil, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Albania, Malawi, and South Africa.
In 2004, the Greater Richmond Chapter of the World Affairs Council conferred on him their George C. Marshall Award in International Law and Diplomacy.
"[3] Howard has traveled to those countries to discuss how constitutions might fit the realities of post-British, post-American, and post-Soviet empires.
Indeed, a number of societies adjusting to "the rule of law" owe a debt to the constructive discussions in Howard's garden gazebo or the solarium of his brick Colonial home.
In each of these projects, Howard has insisted that his primary role is not to write constitutions but to enlarge the understanding of opinions and choices available to the drafters.
Howard believes the success of a constitution depends on its ability to capture the hopes and aspirations of its people.