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Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Courts - Former Connecticut Chief Justice in hot seat

The Hartford Courant has an AP story today reporting that:

The state's Judicial Review Council on Wednesday found probable cause that former state Supreme Court Chief Justice William J. Sullivan violated judicial rules of conduct when he delayed the release of a court opinion to help a fellow justice facing confirmation hearings.

Sullivan, who can still sit on cases as a retired justice, was charged with five violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct and state statutes. * * *

Sullivan has acknowledged that he delayed the release of a controversial court decision, hoping to protect Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's one-time chief justice nominee, Supreme Court Justice Peter Zarella. Zarella was facing legislative confirmation hearings and Sullivan feared Zarella's position on the case would anger legislators.

In the ruling, Zarella voted with the majority to keep certain judicial records secret from the public.

Sunday the Courant had a very long and outraged editorial headed "The Imperial Judiciary." It is an interesting read. Here is a sample from the second half of the article:
[R]eporters discovered a few years ago that judges had for two decades labeled certain cases "Level 1" and super-sealed them so no public traces of those records could be found. Many cases involved influential people, including judges. The Courant and the Connecticut Law Tribune sued in federal court to find out such basic information as the names of litigants and of the judges who approved the sealings.

Judges voted (behind closed doors) to ban the practice. But they also voted to automatically seal all financial affidavits in divorce cases. They didn't ask for the legislature's blessing.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 19, 2006 06:57 PM
Posted to Courts in general