A thoughtful editorial on the Second Circuit and Judge Scheindlin

November 25, 2013 By in Uncategorized Tags: , , , 4 Comments

“The entire episode reminds us of the virtues of care and patience. Four judges of stellar reputation have regrettably demonstrated that impatience and impulsiveness against which the virtue of judiciousness counsels.”  So concludes a much longer editorial entitled “Judicial Patience” written by the editorial board of the New Jersey Law Journal. That board includes two former Associate Justices of the NJ Supreme Court, two former Presiding Judges of the Appellate Division, and a former Governor. It is a distinguished group of thoughtful  people.

I commend the full editorial for your consideration. It is very much worth reading.

RGK

4 responses

  1. Quotable quote:

    “Judicial confession of error—candidly stated—clears the air, but correction painting itself as clarification falls short.”

  3. This just gets funnier and funnier….

    [Scheindlin] also unwisely distinguished herself from her colleagues on the Manhattan federal bench, saying that unlike them (many former U.S. prosecutors), she did not “defer” to the government.

    As Orwell put it, “in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Judges should be b____-slapped for telling the truth. Judge Gertner admitted that she was literally trained to commit federal felonies, and other judges would rather gnaw their arms off than to say that it is wrong for a fellow judge to sit in judgment of her own cause. We all know that what both ladies said is true, but judicial candor is in notoriously short supply.

    The panel in its corrective order would have done well to acknowledge that it had fallen short of Canon 3, the commentary to which notes, “The duty to hear all proceedings fairly and with patience.

    “Law” and “rules” are for the little people. Appellate jurists have gotten so accustomed to being God to be restrained by them, becoming indignant when called out on their conduct.

    Popular confidence in the courts requires the conviction that judges are disinterested, open to the facts, attentive to the law, reasonable and careful.

    And you wonder why our bloody train wreck of a court system deserves universal opprobrium? Even Balzac could not find the requisite superlatives. One of the last decent judges in America, the late Judge Roger Miner of the very same Second Circuit, strikes

    The major cause of the loss of public confidence in the American judiciary, however, is the failure of judges to comply with established professional norms, including rules of conduct specifically prescribed. In brief, it is the unethical conduct of judges, both on and off the bench, that most concerns the citizenry.

    Roger J. Miner, Judicial Ethics In the Twenty-First Century: Tracing the Trends, 32 Hofstra L. Rev. 1107, 1108 (2004) (emphasis added).

    Four judges of stellar reputation

    As the kids say, SRSLY?!? These are little kids playing in a freakin’ sandbox–what you always get when anyone gains power without accountability. One is left to wonder where these rodeo clowns of CA-2 acquired their “stellar reputation,” if not from the slavering sycophants of the emasculated Bar. Certainly, they are undeserving of it now.

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