Saturday, June 11, 2016

The tide regarding judicial misconduct is turning - with law professors from elite law schools joining the fight

Absolute judicial immunity for malicious and corrupt acts on the bench was self-gifted by the judiciary to itself on the claims that such immunity - again, for malicious and corrupt acts on the bench - somehow protects judicial independents.

Well, the public never bought this crap, and it appears that the legal establishment starts to shift, too.

I wrote on this blog about a George Mason Law professor Ilya Somin who openly criticized the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor for her unconstitutional claim that she would make attorneys work for free in order to be entitled to earn a living at all, and who instead suggested the idea previously offered only by economists and legal bloggers like me - to deregulate the legal profession if regulation does not help, but instead hurts the public and contributes to the growing "justice gap".

That's the same George Mason school where professors rebelled against the law school's collective statement that the faculty is grieving the passing of the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and opposing efforts to rename the school after Antonin Scalia, by taking an action through the faculty Senate - because of Antonin Scalia's misconduct that was revealed in his court decisions and in the press.

Now, a Stanford Law professor leads the efforts to take off the bench a just-re-elected judge Aaron Persky because of his unduly favorable decision in a rape case and demeaning of rape victims.

Law professor Michele Dauber delivered a petition to the California Commission for Judicial Performance. While the petition is asking for a "recall" of the judge, I wonder if the California Commission can simply take Persky off the bench for obvious misconduct.

In any event, it is clear that the issue of judicial misconduct, a recent taboo, an "unmentionable", is finally making front lines in mainstream media and is subject of petitions of law professors to recall judges because of their improper verdicts, as well as is causing national and international outrage is apparent that the tide toward judicial misconduct is turning.

Maybe, just maybe, with the help of social media that spread such news like a forest wildfire, we will not wait for long before legislatures and other government authorities in charge of judicial discipline, might have no choice soon but to make changes in judicial accountability rules and practices, at least not to be voted out of office.


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