The media jumped upon the sensational opportunity to describe sanctions imposed upon Robert Myers by the very judge who he challenged with a motion to recuse, a complaint to judicial conduct authorities, and who he subpoenaed to testify (and the judge quashed his own subpoena).
Yet, I do not see the media discussing that, in view of two recent U.S. Supreme Court precedents, sanctions imposed by Judge Jeffrey Langdon upon attorney Robert Myers are invalid - under a 2015 1st Amendment precedent and under a 2016 due process precedent:
Reed v. Town of Gilbert (June 18, 2015) - content-based regulation of speech is subject to strict scrutiny, and discipline imposed upon an attorney for truthful criticism of a judge was never subjected to strict scrutiny and could never pass strict scrutiny, and
Williams v Pennsylvania (June 9, 2016) - it is a violation of due process, voiding the judicial decision, when a judge acts also as an accuser, and Judge Langdon imposed sanctions upon attorney Myers based on Judge Langdon's own order to show cause where Judge Langdon acted as an accuser, prosecutor and judge.
Judge Langdon also had the audacity of determining credibility of Attorney Myers in his claim against the judge himself, for purposes of sanctioning him (and his wife, since sanctions were based on her income, too), $10,000.
Apparently, Montana disciplinary authorities do not read U.S. Supreme Court precedent, otherwise they wouldn't have started the wasteful and unconstitutional disciplinary investigation in 2016 after Reed (2015) and they would definitely have stopped such an investigation had they read and properly applied Williams v Pennsylvania (June 9, 2016).
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