« Ind. Decisions - ND Judge rules LaPorte must replace crumbling sidewalks | Main | Ind. Law - Indiana's voter ID law: more restrictive than that of other countries? »
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Courts - More on "Judging the Federal Judges"
In this Dec. 14th entry, the ILB quoted from a Houston Chronicle story, reported by Lise Olsen, headed "Judging the judges: Does secret process let errant jurists get away with breaking the law?" The story is no longer available from the Chronicle, but may be found here (or here).
On Dec. 30th Ms. Olsen had a second report in the Chronicle, this one headed "Judging the Judges: Veil of secrecy stirring calls for change." Here are some quotes from the lengthy story:
Just 12 chief federal judges wield almost exclusive power over secret misconduct investigations of more than 2,000 fellow jurists — though some have themselves been accused of botching reviews or committing ethical blunders, according to a Houston Chronicle review.At least four current or former chief circuit judges have been the subject of recent high-profile complaints about their behavior; one posted photos of naked women painted to look like cows and other graphic images on his publicly accessible Web site; another manipulated the outcome of a vote in a death penalty case.
Not one faced formal discipline.
Nationwide, the integrity of the federal judicial misconduct system relies heavily on chief judges. Each oversees complaints — more than 6,000 in the last 10 years — against all circuit, district, senior, bankruptcy and magistrate judges in multi-state regions called circuits. * * *
In seven circuits, according to the Chronicle analysis, supervising judges took no public disciplinary action at all in the last decade, meaning not a single federal judge faced any sanctions in 29 states with more than 875 full-time federal judges, despite thousands of complaints. * * *
In 2006, a Supreme Court committee, led by Justice Stephen Breyer, reported the system handled routine matters well, but botched five of 17 high-profile cases, an error rate “far too high.”
The report named no names but described matters bungled by four of 12 regional circuits: the Chicago-based 7th Circuit, the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit, the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit and the St. Louis-based 8th Circuit, the Chronicle found. * * *
Some chief judges pursued no disciplinary action even after confirming that colleagues improperly dished out insider information, slept during trials, hurled obscenities in court, or broke laws themselves, the Chronicle's review of more than 3,000 records stored in a little-known judicial archive shows.
Yet many complaints, on topics ranging from alcoholism to personality disorders, are successfully managed behind the scenes through counseling, and, when necessary, quiet resignations, circuit court officials say.
“There's a lot more being done that doesn't appear (in public records),” said Collins Fitzpatrick, a longtime 7th Circuit executive who has worked on complaints for years and studied the system.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 2, 2010 03:03 PM
Posted to Courts in general