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.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Facebook friends of judge Lisa M. Fisher
When you see people shown below in Lisa M. Fisher's courtroom, know that presiding over their cases may have an appearance of reimbursement for campaign promotion - Judge Fisher disclosed that she extensively used her Facebook friends in her election campaign. Judge Fisher also lamented in her podcast interview interlinked in the previous sentence that she could not give "as much" to her contributors as people running for, say, a senator's office.
I suggest to watch this video after you listen to Judge Fisher's interview, it puts her marketing enthusiasm about judicial elections into proper perspective.
This blog is trying to prevent opportunities for Judge Fisher to "give back" to her Facebook friends in terms of judicial decisions in their favor in return for their work on her election campaign.
The list also gives the readers an impression of the judge's political connections, as some of her friends are sheriffs, staff members of senators etc.
Here is the list. It is long, yet, it is provided to the public as a matter of public service, because in my experience, when a judge's Facebook contacts attract public scrutiny, the friend list gets immediately locked up or erased. I preserved it for you.
So, here is your evidence for future motions to recuse/disqualify Judge Fisher if she attempts to preside over court cases of her friends.
Male chauvinist pigs on the bench galore - continued
The judge's boss refuses to discipline the judge because he believes, the judge did nothing wrong.
Another judge, Judge # 2, refuses to grant an adjournment to a young mother, an attorney, after she gave birth to a child, causes her appearance in the courtroom and publicly humiliates her for neglecting her child BECAUSE she appeared with her child because she could not arrange for daycare!
Judge # 3, after being sued by a party in litigation, has the party's female attorney arrested during recess of a trial, has her handcuffed to a wheelchair, has court attendants take away from her her pen, case files, GLASSES, and orders her to conduct a trial this way, out of a wheelchair and handcuffed, without glasses or any trial material, and without presence of her client - at the threat of a default to her client.
Judge Knutson was sued for that, and a petition for the writ of certiorari is pending in the U.S. Supreme Court.
A video of some of what happened to the female attorney in Judge Knutson court is available on the Internet.
Judge # 4, Judge Kevin M. Dowd of Chenango County Supreme Court, punishes a female attorney (me) for failure to appear at a trial during my documented medical leave because of a back injury.
It appears that courts have an open hunt on women litigants and women-attorneys, especially those who sue judges or are independent.
The system calls them "judges" and refuses to discipline them because they "did nothing wrong".
I call them male chauvinist pigs that should not be allowed to be judges, or attorneys.
Unlawful local rules of Greene County Supreme Court judge Lisa M. Fisher
Judge Fisher’s rule requiring Notice of Appearance and acknowledgements of rules from counsel when Judge Fisher steps into cases where Notices of Appearances were already filed previously, does not comply with existing laws or court rules and are nonsensical.
RULE REGARDING ENDING THE CASE BY A SETTLEMENT
Normally, when parties file a stipulation of discontinuance with the court (and the defendant pays - I do not know why the New York law imposed this cost upon the defendant, but that's the law - the $30 filing fee to file such a Stipulation of Discontinuance) of the action, the lawsuit is over, and the court's jurisdiction is over.
Not so in Judge Fisher's court.
Here is Judge Fisher's rule:
RULE OF MOTIONS ADDRESSING DISCOVERY
New York law is very particular about motions addressing discovery.
There are statutory rules and court rules.
Court rules require good faith efforts to ensure compliance with discovery prior to making a motion and filing an attorney affirmation of good faith with the motion to compel discovery or for other appropriate relief (to preclude use of non-disclosed evidence at trial or for a dismissal/summary judgment).
Judge Fisher goes further. She requires that no motion addressing discovery is filed without a conference
- thus practically mandating parties to incur travel and attendance fees for their attorneys, and expenses for themselves (daycare, leave from work, travel etc.) - which is not mandated by statute or rules of the New York State Court Administration.
There are medical conditions that are not painful, but nevertheless disabling, and even life-threatening. Obviously, they are not considered by Judge Fisher as good reasons to adjourn a court conference.
There are many reasons why a person cannot appear at a conference, from death of a loved one to impossibility to get a leave from work, where livelihood of the party's family depends on the party's holding on to the job that may be lost if the party is going to conferences every so often (and litigants do lose jobs because of frequent court appearances).
If Judge Fisher worked for 18 years prior to the bench as an attorney (as she states in the podcast interview interlinked above), and since she worked in the public defender's office, as her official Facebook election campaign page states, she should know that much.
If she knows it and still makes a requirement for a severely restrictive list of "good reasons" for an adjournment - she does it deliberately, that's the only reasonable explanation that I can find for this rule.
These tricks have nothing to do with proper administration of justice, and Judge Fisher knows it, no doubt, having practiced for 18 years prior to coming to the bench.
There is absolutely no reason why all conferences cannot be held by phone, and requirement of physical appearance by any attorneys or parties is nothing other than a desire to exercise control and cause submission of parties and counsel, without regard whether it is necessary or not.
RULE OF TRIAL SUBMISSIONS
It appears that Judge Fisher wants her trials to be not trials where unexpected things can happen, like impeachment of witnesses, but should be as close as possible to motions for a summary judgments, with no surprises at any time at all.
Such a position (my legal opinion) certainly undermines the very principle of adversarial justice which is the cornerstone of the American justice system.
Judge Fisher also requires verdict sheets also to be submitted a week before trial (even, I understand, when the verdict sheets are special interrogatories to juries that can only be formed on the basis of what evidence was submitted at trial).
This requirement is clearly pro-plaintiff, and puts Judge Fisher in the shoes of an advocate for plaintiffs (usually, corporations suing in her court) and against defendants, usually common people, often pro se or poor.
Apparently, Judge Fisher makes parties do her own and her court attorney's work, and pay for it.
The sum and substance of the rules of Judge Fisher shows:
1) Judge Fisher is more concerned by form than by substance and fairness of the litigation;
2) Judge Fisher is extremely pro-plaintiff, to the point of advocacy for the plaintiffs through her rules;
3) Judge Fisher disregards the law, including constitutional law, to assert her authority.
Not good, and this is only her first year on the bench.