THE EVOLUTION OF JUDICIAL TYRANNY IN THE UNITED STATES:

"If the judges interpret the laws themselves, and suffer none else to interpret, they may easily make, of the laws, [a shredded] shipman's hose!" - King James I of England, around 1616.

“No class of the community ought to be allowed freer scope in the expression or publication of opinions as to the capacity, impartiality or integrity of judges than members of the bar. They have the best opportunities of observing and forming a correct judgment. They are in constant attendance on the courts. Hundreds of those who are called on to vote never enter a court-house, or if they do, it is only at intervals as jurors, witnesses or parties. To say that an attorney can only act or speak on this subject under liability to be called to account and to be deprived of his profession and livelihood by the very judge or judges whom he may consider it his duty to attack and expose, is a position too monstrous to be entertained for a moment under our present system,” Justice Sharwood in Ex Parte Steinman and Hensel, 95 Pa 220, 238-39 (1880).

“This case illustrates to me the serious consequences to the Bar itself of not affording the full protections of the First Amendment to its applicants for admission. For this record shows that [the rejected attorney candidate] has many of the qualities that are needed in the American Bar. It shows not only that [the rejected attorney candidate] has followed a high moral, ethical and patriotic course in all of the activities of his life, but also that he combines these more common virtues with the uncommon virtue of courage to stand by his principles at any cost.

It is such men as these who have most greatly honored the profession of the law. The legal profession will lose much of its nobility and its glory if it is not constantly replenished with lawyers like these. To force the Bar to become a group of thoroughly orthodox, time-serving, government-fearing individuals is to humiliate and degrade it.” In Re Anastaplo, 18 Ill. 2d 182, 163 N.E.2d 429 (1959), cert. granted, 362 U.S. 968 (1960), affirmed over strong dissent, 366 U.S. 82 (1961), Justice Black, Chief Justice Douglas and Justice Brennan, dissenting.

" I do not believe that the practice of law is a "privilege" which empowers Government to deny lawyers their constitutional rights. The mere fact that a lawyer has important responsibilities in society does not require or even permit the State to deprive him of those protections of freedom set out in the Bill of Rights for the precise purpose of insuring the independence of the individual against the Government and those acting for the Government”. Lathrop v Donohue, 367 US 820 (1961), Justice Black, dissenting.

"The legal profession must take great care not to emulate the many occupational groups that have managed to convert licensure from a sharp weapon of public defense into blunt instrument of self-enrichment". Walter Gellhorn, "The Abuse of Occupational Licensing", University of Chicago Law Review, Volume 44 Issue 1, September of 1976.

“Because the law requires that judges no matter how corrupt, who do not act in the clear absence of jurisdiction while performing a judicial act, are immune from suit, former Judge Ciavarella will escape liability for the vast majority of his conduct in this action. This is, to be sure, against the popular will, but it is the very oath which he is alleged to have so indecently, cavalierly, baselessly and willfully violated for personal gain that requires this Court to find him immune from suit”, District Judge A. Richard Caputo in H.T., et al, v. Ciavarella, Jr, et al, Case No. 3:09-cv-00286-ARC in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Document 336, page 18, November 20, 2009. This is about judges who were sentencing kids to juvenile detention for kickbacks.


Monday, February 9, 2015

Nancy Deming, a member of the Independent Judicial Election Qualifications Commission - what a briliant idea!


I checked out today the composition of the "Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commissions" for the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division 3rd Judicial Department.

I will put my thoughts about the entire composition and the whole idea of this "Independent" Commission into another blog, but one name deserves special attention.

Attorney Nancy Deming of Delhi, New York, as a member of "Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commissions".  As independent as independent can get.  Especially from what I know of her, and especially under the circumstances.

Nancy Deming was on the School Board of the Delaware County School District when her son was in that school, and left the Board when her son graduated, begging the question - did she hold her position to secure leniency or favors for her son?

Now she is on the "Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commissions", while continuing to practice in front of the very same courts for which she is "independently" picking judges, and she will practice in front of the newly elected County Judge (who is also a Family Court judge, a Surrogate's Court Judge and, most likely, will be appointed, like Becker was, as an Acting Delaware County Supreme Court Justice), which she will have helped elect by providing "qualifications" for such an election.

"Coincidentally", Nancy Deming of Delhi, NY is on the Committee at the time when Delaware County was granted a second position of a County Judge, when the current County judge Carl F. Becker is to retire without serving out his full term because he turns 70 4 years before his 10-year term runs out, so there are actually two judicial elections to "independently" pick judges for.

Not to mention that Nancy Deming's husband, also an attorney, James Hartmann, agreed to a dirty job of being a trial lawyer in a politically tainted case against my husband Frederick J. Neroni, whom Judge Becker hates with a passion, while I received information from a reliable source that the candidate about to run for the second seat of a County Judge is Porter Kirkwood, the current Delaware County Attorney, Judge Becker's pet, who I personally know for his incompetence, and lack of integrity, more on that in a separate blog.

For Nancy Deming to select an "eligible" judicial candidate under the circumstances is to secure a ticket to favorable decisions in front of two judges -

  • Judge Becker who is also a Family Court judge and an Acting Supreme Court justice in this county, and Nancy Deming is practicing in front of Judge Becker in all of these courts; and
  • if elected, the (dis)honorable Porter Kirkwood.
By the way, if Porter Kirkwood is elected, it will become a hereditary right of attorneys representing (for decades) the Delaware County Department of Social services to preside over child neglect cases brought their own clients in Delaware County Family Court and while assessing credibility of their own clients based on extrajudicial evidence.  Also, bear in mind that Porter Kirkwood, same as Judge Becker, possible has insider information from Social Services about every resident of Delaware County, so when Judge Becker decides cases today, he may be delving into his knowledge of information that a neutral judge would have no access to - and I do know that he did it in several cases without disclosure of his involvement through Social Services before election in 2002, and he fails to disclose such involvement, while records that he consults or knows about are private and you will never be able to access them to help you on a motion to recuse.

Remember, the Social Services have two types of files - hard copies and electronic files.

While Social Services declare an "open file policy" for people who have been charged with child neglect or administratively prosecuted on "indicated reports", first, they lie about giving you full access to the file, and I know that Porter Kirkwood personally lied to me that there is no file for a person for whom I found out later there was a file, and a file implicating Judge Becker in misconduct.

Also, there are electronic files maintained by Social Services that neither you nor your attorney will ever be allowed to see, and both Becker and Kirkwood had or have at this time access to such records.

Judge Becker presided over cases of his client the Delaware County Department of Social Services since 2002, after representing that Department for 27 years.

Porter Kirkwood, if elected, will continue this dishonorable tradition.  He has been with the Department also for more than a decade.

Imagine - to assess credibility of your own decades-long clients!  What a present for the Social Services.  What a slap in the face of Delaware County residents.

Delaware County voters!

If I were you, I would turn out at the voting site in droves, not to allow Porter Kirkwood to grab the judicial position.

As to Nancy Deming - my residual respect to this attorney just sunk below zero when I saw her on that list, at this time, and under the circumstances.

A member of an "Independent Judicial Selection Commmission", no less.





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