It was, once again, judicial misconduct pure and simple - as a judge does not get to say which one of the attorneys from a law firm hired to represent a client gets to appear in court, it is for the client and for the law firm to decide.
Moreover, the judge who was unhappy that an associate appeared in front of him, is not unhappy when the government sends recent law school graduates in criminal or civil rights cases, and, where the same court has licensed the associate in question as qualified to practice law in that court, no judge could find it "insulting", as a matter of law, when the attorney licensed by that court actually came to practice in that court.
After a storm of unfavorable comments in the media about Judge Garaufis, the following, reportedly, transpired:
1) Facebook (the client) and the law firm APOLOGIZED to the judge who committed misconduct;
2) the, judge, reportedly, partially apologized - sort of, only that he did not mean to criticize the associate:
and yes,
3) "everybody are friends again".
Yet, what Judge Garaufis said as part of his "apology" is a prime example of the judge's (intellectual) dishonesty, a big issue of public concern:
An "inference" "achieved through the media" that the judge was ever "upset at" the associate was "totally unfounded"?
Please...
One needs a lobotomy to take this kind of bogus at face value.
What kind of "inference" anyone, including "the media", needs to interpret these words:
And, it is definitely not only the matter of being "upset at" the associate, it is the matter that the judge behaves as a cantankerous and spoiled brat in need of appeasing by treating the "court" as another type of "court" - as in "King's court", and requiring lawyers to be "courtiers" required to appease the judge.
That is all that is wrong with the U.S. judicial system - the "culture of quiescence", the "scraping and bowing" of attorneys in front of judges, "or else".
The "friendship" cost Facebook to the tune of $3,000 per hour per each of 3 (by other accounts, 5) partners who appeared at the "apologetic" conference.
So, Judge Garaufis' self-respect apparently has a price-tag on it - $15,000.00 per hour for conferences (for 5 lawyers), plus travel expenses for lawyers to come to a conference in front of Judge Caraufis from as far as California.
Or, does Judge Garaufis have behind-the-scene agreements with law firms to throw tantrums when associates, with cheaper hourly rates, and not the more expensive partners, appear in front of him?
Maybe, Facebook can afford such a costly - and unnecessary - apology, but a usual American litigant who cannot afford an attorney in the first place, surely cannot.
But, what I find the most alarming of it all is the conclusion that a supposedly reputable legal blog "Above the Law" draws from all of it - maybe, with a "tongue in cheek", maybe not so much: "when a federal judge gets angry, he must be placated".
Really?
A federal judge should be treated as a capricious prima donna when he throws a tantrum?
Not impeached and taken off the bench for misconduct - if that anger is as displaced as Judge Garaufis' was?
One interesting thing is - that the judge who is supposed to be independent from the outside influence, even mentioned the "inferences by the media", and apologized nearly immediately after a storm of criticism in the media and social media.
But, the criticism continues.
Here are some more comments about the situation:
and, in a more "courtly" language:
When a client sends a lawyer to court, it is the client's not the judge's choice who the client sends.
No apologies for the choice of lawyer needed.
What is needed is discipline - or, better, removal of Judge Garaufis.
He forgot one portion of his oath of office - that there are no titles of nobility in the United States.
Not even for cantankerous federal judges.
No comments:
Post a Comment