A new CLE course to be taught soon: "Praise Peebles' trumpet and other similar techniques"

As of November 13, 2015, my law license was allegedly suspended in New York.

I say "allegedly" because (1) I was never served with the order of suspension and because (2) the order of suspension posted online says I "should" be suspended, not that I am suspended.

Also, the U.S. Supreme Court said that unconstitutional actions of the government are void, meaning they are a ZERO, a NOTHING, a NULLITY.

My order of suspension very clearly says that, as of November 13, 2015, the court at the same time found attorney disciplinary violations AND blamed me for not expressing remorse on a date prior to determination of liability.

That is called pre-judgment, which is unconstitutional, making the order of suspension, according to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Marbury v Madison some 112 year ago void and a nullity.

Nevertheless, despite the state order of suspension being a nullity, a federal court allegedly suspended my federal law license - without telling me - allegedly on November 18, 2015, even though my status was listed as "active" on the court's website until November 22, 2015 and only on November 23, 2015, through a "letter order" in another case, the court condescended to notifying me of the order of suspension allegedly made on November 18, 2015.

The suspension by NDNY court is peculiar.

TWICE I asked that same court, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, for help based on constitutional violations that led to suspension of my law license.

In June of 2011 I sued Delaware County County, Family and Acting Supreme Court judge Carl Becker for misconduct IN and OUT of court.

After I sued him, Judge Becker immediately imposed sanctions upon me in three court cases.

Judge Becker's sanctions were imposed because, in his opinion, I harassed HIM by motions to recuse - which was grounds for disqualification, because a victim of alleged harassment may not preside, as a point of due process of law, over the case where the victim claims that harassment.

 A year before Becker imposed sanctions upon me in 2011, in 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit VACATED sanctions against an attorney for abuse of discretion - and those sanctions did not even involved statements about conduct of a public officials (which get additional 1st Amendment protection).

The 2nd Circuit has ruled that an attorney is entitled to draw reasonable inferences from facts the attorney is aware of to draw reasonable conclusions for purposes of his pleadings.

I did exactly that for motions to recuse.  I made all of my motions to recuse based on documentary evidence and inferences therefrom.  And, I was additionally protected by the 1st Amendment, because my statements were about misconduct of public officials:

• Judge Carl Becker, since "retired";
• then-Delaware County Attorney Richard Spinney, since "retired";
• District Attorney Richard Northrup, since elected to Judge Becker's seat, and
• Vice-Chair of Commission of Judicial Conduct Stephen Coffey, who since was not re-appointed to the Commission after 16+ years of "service".

I can repeat under oath the contents of my pleadings, and the reasons for the inferences I made before a jury, and I am sure a reasonable jury will agree that there was nothing unreasonable in my inferences.

Moreover, it was my personal perception of impropriety, and an attorney may not be sanctioned for her personal perception.

Anyway, the timeline of participation of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York in protection of my constitutional rights is as follows:

1/ September 2009 - I made a motion to recuse Becker from a child neglect case of my client because Becker represented the Petitioner and Petitioner's witnesses for 27 years.

2/ Later in September 2009 - my child is reviewed by local school's nurse and she makes a comment that my child has mosquito bites on him.  He did - he was fishing with family friends and their kids at our pond.  But I am not notified of the nurse's "mosquito" report.  

3/  A couple of days after the "mosquito report" and about 10 days after my motion to recuse, my husband and I are investigated by Becker's friend Commissioner Moon (since "retired") for child neglect. Later, Moon states under oath at a deposition that "had I opened that door" (and had I allowed search of our home law office) I wouldn't have been charged.

4/ October 2009.  A child neglect petition is filed against us by Moon.  Becker recuses.

Since Becker recused from our proceedings, Becker demonstrated his lack of impartiality and could not possibly sanction me.  Yet, he continued to preside over my other proceedings and recused only in 2012, after he imposed the sanctions that are now the basis of my no-hearing order of suspension.

5/ In early December of 2010 I file a complaint with the NYS Commission for Judicial Conduct against Becker, describe in detail Becker's misconduct in 9 cases and request to take him off the bench.

6/  Instead, Becker is promoted to position of Acting Supreme Court justice in January of 2011 and assigns himself to all of my cases.

7/ Naturally, I make motions to recuse based on Becker's lack of impartiality against me that can reflect on my clients, and based on additional evidence in the record of Becker's misconduct and appearance of impropriety.  Appearances of impropriety is all that is required for an attorney to raise against a judge on a motion to recuse in New York.

Yet, attorneys are sanctioned, as I was, by the challenged judge no less, for not providing hard proof of misconduct, an invented elevated burden of proof.

8/ May 2011 - I request the New York State Attorney General to commence an ousting proceeding against Becker because his certificate of election for 2002 elections was never filed, and what was filed in 2011, is a forgery.

9/ June 27, 2011 - I file a lawsuit against Judge Becker on behalf of myself, my husband Frederick J. Neroni and my client Alecia Bracci (one of the sanctions imposed upon me was because of a motion to recuse I made PRO BONO in Ms. Bracci's case);  the lawsuit has been served upon Becker the same day by Barbara O'Sullivan, Alecia Bracci's mother.  "Coincidentally", both Alecia Bracci and Barbara O'Sullivan are now prosecuted on framed charges based on family court proceedings that are the basis of sanctions against me.

10/  July 1, 2011, August 2, 2011 and August 12, 2011 - Becker imposes sanctions upon me that are now the basis of the order of suspension of my law license without a hearing.

11/  On December 17, 2011 I file a federal lawsuit on behalf of Alecia Bracci, Frederick Neroni (my husband) and myself in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.  I will call it NDNY for brevity.

12/  Judge James Tormey is assigned to state lawsuit against Becker and dismisses the case after a public hearing and an ex parte  with the NYS Assistant Attorney General.

Judge Tormey did not disclose in that lawsuit that he was represented by NYS AG for 4.5 years in a civil rights lawsuit against him where he was sued in an individual capacity.

In January of 2012, Judge Tormey dismissed the state lawsuit against Becker on absolute judicial immunity grounds, even though the lawsuit covered Becker's administrative acts and out of court acts.

13/  Even though the sanctions (point 10 above) FOLLOWED the filing of the state lawsuit (point 9 above), and thus cannot be included into appellate review of dismissal of the state lawsuit, NDNY dismisses our federal lawsuit against Becker on absolute immunity grounds, WITHOUT LOOKING at the evidence;

14/  NDNY later imposes an anti-filing injunction upon my husband Frederick J. Neroni for filing a "frivolous" lawsuit against Becker - that is the same Bracci v Becker.

15/  The appellate court dismissed appeal of one of the sanctions on a technicality and affirmed two other sanctions while ignoring large and material chunks of the record (a transcript where the then-Delaware County Attorney Richard Spinney admits to an ex parte communication with Becker and a motion to compel disclosure of identity of plaintiff's expert whose position was contrary to plaintiffs and was showing that plaintiffs' lawsuit was frivolous in another case).

Appeals from sanctions were "vertical", pertaining to single-sanction-at-a-time, and did not involve the three sanctions and timing of the sanctions after I sued the judge, because of jurisdictional restrictions of the appellate court (or so they said).

16/  In January of 2013, because Becker's retaliatory sanctions were affirmed on appeal, a disciplinary petition is filed against me by the disciplinary committee of the Appellate Division 3rd Department where (1) supermajority of members - 18 out of 21 - are attorneys and my competitors, and many members of the committee have additional disqualification issues;

the petition contains Charge I Specification I charging me with neglect of clients at the time I was not admitted to practice law (which is fraud on behalf of prosecution, because they submitted under oath that they actually reviewed court records which would have readily alerted them that I was not admitted at the time they were charging me) and Charge IV that was dismissed even by the disciplinary court because it failed to allege a disciplinary violation.

I immediately forward to the disciplinary attorney Stephen Zayas (since "resigned" from the committee amid investigation into filing of false time sheets, employed by a prestigious law firm employing former judges, and then suddenly not employed there any more, but picked up by the State of New York again after I blogged about Zayas and his employment with the law firm employing former judges) - two sets of court records with a request to withdraw Charge I Specification I:

• a transcript of the deposition that Zayas claims in the petition I failed to attend as an attorney on behalf of two clients or explain to the court why I failed to attend;
• motion in that same case that I allegedly failed to oppose causing a default of those same two clients.

Dates on those two documents clearly show the year 2008, a year before I was admitted to the bar.

Thus, I was not an attorney in 2008, it was a crime for me to appear as an attorney on anybody's behalf in court or in depositions in 2008, and I could not be possibly charged for violation of attorney discipline for NOT committing a crime on two occasions.

I thought the incident will be resolved as soon as Zayas receives the documents, since they were obvious.

Zayas  instead continued to prosecute the case, fraud and all.

17/  In February of 2013 I removed the case to NDNY and filed an additional civil rights lawsuit.

18/  NDNY dismissed the civil rights lawsuit on Younger abstention grounds (meaning that the stat court is capable of handling federal constitutional issues) and remanded the disciplinary case for lack of jurisdiction because I alleged bias unrelated to racial discrimination (there is no such restriction in the removal statute I relied upon).

I would like to stress once again:

I asked THREE authorities in New York State to address Becker's misconduct:

• NY State Commission of Judicial Conduct (2009, 2010, 2011- 2015) - where attorney Stephen Coffey was Vice-Chair while at the same time being part of litigation involving his own misconduct and coercing Becker to make improper bail release orders that plunged Delaware County into years of litigation (I actually won the money back for my client - after three appeals and a sanction, so that's why my license was taken because of a "client matter", because my representation of that particular client actually benefited that particular client);
• NYS Attorney General (May of 2011), requesting him to file a petition for a writ of quo warranto (ousting) of Becker, because there was no competent documentary evidence of Becker's election in 2002;  instead, NYS AG represented Becker when I sued him;
• Delaware County Supreme Court - where NYS AG represented Becker, and a judge was assigned who was also just sued for retaliation and was also represented by NYS AG.

 

After that, I asked NDNY to help against violation by the State of New York of my own and my clients' constitutional rights TWICE:

1. through a lawsuit Bracci v Becker - dismissed on grounds of "absolute judicial immunity", meaning that the court said that, even if ALL that I was saying about Becker's misconduct was true, it DOES NOT MATTER, the lawsuit will have to be dismissed anyway, and the court will not LOOK at the evidence;
2. through a removed disciplinary case - it was dismissed because, after all evidence that state authorities in New York WOULD NOT HEAR federal constitutional claims, NDNY stubbornly considered that I still can and should be plunged before the state government that does not want to hear about federal constitutional claims, especially about the government's own misconduct. Also, NDNY remanded because I was not RACIALLY discriminated by the state authorities (even though recently another attorney Leon Koziol has argued in a writ of mandamus against NDNY that NDNY itself discriminate against Mr. Koziol AND against me because of our Slavic origin).  So, had my skin been a different color than white, I would have had a chance at a removal of my disciplinary case, that is the inference that can be reasonably made from NDNY's remand.   

I will fast-forward what happened in state disciplinary court, I blogged a lot about it since the time of remand up to now.

I will only mention that, following the dismissal of my civil rights case on Younger abstention grounds by NDNY, I made motions in my disciplinary court raising federal constitutional issues, including due process and 1st Amendment not once, not twice, but three times.

Each time the motion was denied without an explanation, reasoning or legal grounds.

The first time it was "simply" denied without an explanation.

I moved to vacate, renew or reargue - and to provide a reasoned explanation and legal grounds, as was my due process right.  I was punished for that by an anti-filing injunction without court's permission - without a prior notice or opportunity to be heard.

I was then "allowed" to file yet another motion - when the referee refused to hold the court-ordered evidentiary hearing and instead illegally "decided the motion" for a summary judgment - together with the fraudulent charge that I neglected my clients in 2008, before I was admitted to the bar.

I did - and the November 13, 2015 decision to suspend me cites that, once again, my motions were denied, and once again without an explanation.

So much for the Younger abstention on the grounds that a state court is fully capable to resolved federal constitutional issues.  Denying a motion raising such issues without an explanation and punishing an attorney for raising those issues with a suspension is not a proper "resolution" of federal constitutional issues, and does not come close to the set of rights I am entitled to in a federal civil rights lawsuit that was dismissed under the Younger abstention.

So.

I explored all avenues against a biased judge who recused from our case in 2009, but continued to assign himself to our other cases in order to be able to abuse his power and to retaliate against me and my clients for challenging his misconduct, using legal avenues.

(By the way, Becker sanctioned me TWICE for using public records in pleadings - in the "client matter" from Family Court which is used as one of the three sanctions in my order of suspension, for making FOIL requests seeking information about Judge Becker himself, and in another case where I used open court records to draw reasonable inferences - which the 2nd Circuit allowed and said it was not sanctionable as of 2010.)

After complaints and  motions to recuse did not help, and after I received information about Becker's out of court activities that were not subject to any kind of immunities, I sued the judge.

The judge retaliated with 3 sanctions.

I asked NDNY for protection pointing out that the timing, number and sequence of sanctions, and the basis of imposition of sanctions suggest retaliation in violation of my due process and 1st Amendment access to courts, for myself, my family members and my clients.

NDNY refused to help, tossing the case for the first time without looking at the evidence.

State appellate court similarly refused to look at the pattern of retaliation because of its restrictions to the record on appeal from a single case, which precluded the court from reviewing evidence between three cases forming  a pattern of retaliation.

I made three motions based on new evidence to vacate sanctions.

All of them were denied based on "collateral estoppel", which is only applicable when no new evidence is available.

A disciplinary action was brought against me exclusively on the basis of retaliatory sanctions.

I removed the case to NDNY and asked the court for the second time to help me against New York State's violation of my own and my clients' constitutional rights.

NDNY refused to help me, now for the second time, quoting that I did not assert racially-based retaliation.  Retaliation because I am Russian and an immigrant with an accent is not enough for "racially-based" retaliation and discrimination, I guess, not to mention that the statute of removal does not mention racially based discrimination as a condition precedent to grant the removal.

After NDNY refused to help me TWICE regarding KNOWN discrimination and KNOWN violation of my constitutional rights by the State of New York based on KNOWN retaliation of a state judge, 
NDNY now penalized me, a victim of judicial retaliation that NDNY refused to help, even more, by suspending my federal law license without a notice or hearing based on:

• order of suspension of the state court without review of constitutional issues;
• after dismissal by NDNY on Younger abstention grounds;
• when order of suspension was exclusively based on Becker's retaliatory sanctions, and
• when NDNY refused to address the pattern of retaliation by Becker when I sued back in December of 2011

And - the icing on the cake which I will address in detail in a separate blog is the identity of the attorney disciplinary committee appointed by NDNY, whom I will have to serve and who will be opponents to my requests to vacate the order of suspension in federal court.  It is as if NDNY hand-picked those same people who acted against me in state proceedings (and recused) and whom I sued in NDNY for due process and antitrust violations,  to finish me in the federal proceedings.

So, the pattern of how state authorities (all sworn to protect the U.S. Constitution) treated me as a critic of unconstitutional conduct of public officials is like that:

1. ignore her complaints;
2. if it does not help - intimidate her and harass her family and her child with a child neglect proceeding;
3. if it does not help - intimidate and humiliate her with assigning a once-recused biased judge to the case and allowing him to unleash verbal tongue-lashing on her as if she is a second-grader;
4. if it does not help - sanction her for making motions to recuse and for suing the judge;
5. if you are a federal judge and she requests the help she is entitled to - refuse her any protection against constitutional violations by New York State pursuant to an act of the U.S. Congress, the Civil Rights Act, and the removal statute;  
6. if it does not help and she goes public with exposure of judicial misconduct in both state and federal court system;
7. suspend her state law license - just when she filed a motion to vacate in federal court based on misconduct of top court officials in the State of New York and was about to file a motion for sanctions against those same top court officials and the NYS Attorney General;
8. suspend her federal law license without a hearing - in full knowledge, based on TWO federal cases that NDNY refused to hear, that what is being done to me in disciplinary "court" was unconstitutional.

And, after all that, (by the way, listen to the excellent musical piece at the end of my previous description of the pattern of how to eliminate a big-mouth civil rights attorney here), hope that she is tarred-and-feathered enough to be discredited and to crawl someplace licking her wounds - and that she will finally SHUT UP.

Did I mention tens of thousands of dollars in sanctions against her for doing her job for her clients, the job that other attorneys refused to do?

And, blast her for refusing to "admit misconduct", repent the error of her ways (even though a court is not a religious institution, or so they say), "express remorse" or ask for leniency and mercy from the criminal cartel that is operating attorney disciplinary system.

Really, I did commit the worst of attorney disciplinary offenses.

After all, I criticized NDNY magistrate David Peebles for too-cozy a relationship with rich and powerful legal-elite firms, for corruption in how he is trying to get re-appointed for his lucrative and highly paying (at taxpayers'  expense) position and for keeping attorneys who practice in front of him as a captive audience with his trumpet performances.

That is the main offense I committed:  I did not brown-nose the judiciary.  How did I live up to my gray hair and having raised three children, two of them adults, without knowing that simple truth?

Thou shalt brown-nose your judge!

In view of the above, I am planning to teach a CLE course, and I reasonably predict it will be wildly popular and financially lucrative.

It will be tentatively called: "How to Praise Peebles' trumpet - and other similar techniques".

That is the beginning and the end of what a lawyer in this country needs to know about the law and its application.

I will announce when the CLE course will be posted later on.  I might even combine it with a cooking show.

Stay tuned.

A judge canned for conduct that an attorney was canned for reporting. How logical. How appropriate

The State of Pennsylvania removed a judge Barry F. Feudale who "feuded" (not my pun) with PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane whose license was suspended because of charges brought by the old boys' club after she exposed the old boys' club, including the now removed judge.

Let's recall that Pennsylvania is the home for the "Kids for Cash" scandal where a judge was selling kids, for bribes, into for-profit jails, and was doing that for years.

Judge Mark Ciavarella was convicted, is in prison, but large portions of a civil lawsuit against him was dismissed on grounds of absolute judicial immunity with the following wording:

“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. 

See the logic?

The act of taking the oath to protect the Constitution protects THE JUDGE from lawsuits for violating that oath.  Even if that is against the popular will.

Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

Let's also recall that, but for the stance of Pennsylvania - and other states - to sanction attorneys, people who know the most and can explain the most, as experts, about judicial misconduct that they see on a daily basis, for criticizing judges - the bench would have been a lot cleaner than it is now.

Maybe, had attorneys been allowed freedom to criticize judicial misconduct without the fear of license suspension, the Kids for Cash scandal would not have occurred at all.


As it is now, here is the list of attorneys who I know who were suspended or disbarred for criticizing judicial misconduct (and many orders of suspension are concealed as my is, hiding the issue that the suspension or disbarment is for criticism of misconduct in the government and especially in the judiciary):

1. Doris Sassower - civil rights attorney - New York - former president of New York women's bar association - suspended long time ago without automatic readmission date (which is in essence an order of disbarment) and not reinstated since; her "crime" was a lawsuit asking a New York to declare unconstitutional party cross-endorsements of judges during judicial elections in New York;
2. Lanre Amu - African American - immigrant - civil rights attorney - Illinois - made a complaint against a Circuit Judge who was a member of the board of a company and the sister of attorney for the company appearing against her.  Lanre Amu is suspended for reporting it;
3. Don Bailey - civil rights attorney - Pennsylvania -  a veteran of the armed forced, former senator and Pennsylvania state auditor - civil rights attorney - raised an issue of conflicts of issues and corruption in federal court - suspended;
4. Kathleen Kane - Pennsylvania Attorney General - suspended for investigations of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct;
5. Leon Koziol - civil rights attorney - New York - suspended and denied reinstatement because of his testimony before the anti-corruption "Moreland" Commission that NY Governor Cuomo disbanded when it started to investigate him.  The dissolution of the Commission is now reportedly the subject of investigation by a federal prosecutor Preet Bharara;  
6. Paul Ogden - Illinois - suspended for an e-mail that criticized a judge;
7. Dr. Richard Fine - California - disbarred for exposing judicial misconduct of Los Angeles judges who were receiving tens of thousands of dollars in addition to their state salary from the County of Los Angeles that was appearing in front of the judges as a party.  Dr. Richard Fine, an elderly gentlemen, not only was disbarred, but ended up in jail and a de facto solitary confinement for 18 months for refusal to abide by an illegal court order.
8. JoAnne Marie Denison - Indiana - suspended for 3 years for blogging and exposing elder cleansing and corruption in Indiana probate courts;
9. Robert Serafinowicz - Connecticut - suspended for 120 for criticizing a judge's impartiality and competency in a public interview.
10. Zbigniew Rozicki - Connecticut - suspended for 4 years for criticizing judges
11. Stephen L. Hall - West Virginia - suspended for 3 months for criticizing judges
12. "Zamboni" John Scannell, Washington
13. Ken Ditkowski, Illinois
14. Nanine McCool, Louisiana - allegations of filing "multiple motions to recuse with false allegations against a judge".
15. Keven A. McKenna, Rhode Island, 1 year suspension without automatic reinstatement, as a retaliation for criticism of judges
16. Stephen Yagman, California, "the Yag rule"
17. Barbara Johnson, Massachussets
18. Robert Grundstein, Washington/Ohio/Vermont
19. Doug Schafer, Washington
20. Sean Conway, Florida - called judge an "evil, unfair witch"
21. James Albert Frost, Maryland
22. John A. Aretakis, New York - accused a judge of criminal conspiracy in fixing court cases.

I cannot name all attorneys who proudly and courageously stand up to judicial misconduct, in full knowledge of potential consequences.

I simply don't know all the names, but I am proud to be part of this completely unregulated and yet not connected enough group of the lonely white sheep of the legal profession.

I also found an encouraging case in Colorado where judges actually did apply the law the way it should be applied, a rare occasion nowadays.

In 2000, the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that a lawyer's criticism of judges is protected speech under the 1st Amendment, that was in regards of attorney Lawrence Jamalian Green.

The court said the following:


“By clothing Green’s letters with the mantle of the First
Amendment, we neither condone the tone of Green’s letters nor agree with
the conclusions he drew,” the unanimous opinion said.

1st Amendment was driven by policy - policy of the people that courts that take an oath to uphold the 1st Amendment and its policy - defy in practice.


"The justices said restricting attorney speech hinders the
public’s access to the views of lawyers, who are in the best position to
comment on the judicial system.
“Interest about judges is important in Colorado, where the
public periodically votes whether to retain judges,” the opinion
said."

And how the Colorado Supreme Court decided it is exactly how it should be.

After all, courts refuse to reach the merits of lawsuits against judges claiming judges are immune from lawsuits even for the most egregious and corrupt behavior on the bench.

That seems like a public policy to me.

Yet, most courts do not want to apply the protection to criticism of themselves REQUIRED by the 1st Amendment of the very Constitution by which they get their power to judge.

Moreover, as reported by Paul Ogden in his blog, in attorney disciplinary proceedings courts and disciplinary panels across the country find insufficient grounds for criticism of judges in 98% of cases, which means, in 98% of cases attorneys criticizing judges are sanctioned, and the public is deprived of services of mostly capable criminal defense and civil rights attorneys (who mostly are the attorneys criticizing judicial misconduct).

Of course, criticizing judges for misconduct is an issue of public concern that is fully protected by the 1st Amendment, and punishing attorneys for criticizing judges is unconstitutional - but guess what, judges irate for being criticized don't give a damn about the Constitution because - read the quote about Ciavarella's immunity above.

I am honored to be in the company of people I enumerated above.

I am proud that I stood up against judicial misconduct when attorneys around me knew about such misconduct and were afraid to raise it.

I did it with support of my husband, despite all the dirt that was cast by the system against us in the process and despite all financial, emotional and health repercussion that we suffered because of it.

My husband was actually disbarred, also without a hearing, through a corrupt scheme instituted by a retired judge and his son - which corrupt scheme received an enthusiastic help from several judges of several courts, and his disbarment was yet another signal to me to shut up.

He was disbarred, as I understand, because I did not shut up.

Then, my own law license was suspended because I did not shut up.

There was an attempt to prosecute me criminally because I did not shut up.

There was an attempt to physically intimidate me, which is what likely happened, when a person broke into our home and left a burning cigarette on the carpet of our bedroom, right before we came back home.

I did not shut up then either.

The local DA - now judge-elect Richard Northrup - did not investigate or prosecute the case and, as I wrote in my previous blog post, evidence and statements from that case are mysteriously "not taken", "not preserved", withdrawn and generally my access to evidence collected in my house is stalled.

The State of New York, judges who I criticized, suspended me with multiple procedural violations.  I already listed some of them.  I will list more in the future when I file appropriate pleadings with appropriate courts.

Federal judges, judges who I criticized, refused to give me and my husband help against a judge committing misconduct and then suspended my federal license without a hearing or notice when my state law license was suspended without a hearing based on sanctions imposed by the judge I sued after I sued him.

Yet, I do not believe I am banging my head against an impenetrable brick wall by not shutting up and by continuing to write here.

You know why?

The judiciary is not as independent as it claims it is when it protects its independence (from the law) by protecting its corruption by immunity.

The judiciary is afraid.

Of exposure.

And I will continue that exposure.

It helps - if not me personally, then the people.

The people have a right to know.

Because - had there been ENOUGH criticism of judges, timely criticism, the kid in Pennsylvania from the Kids for Cash scandal who committed suicide could have been alive, and many kids' lives and mental and emotional health would not have been ruined.

Removal of law licenses mostly from defense attorneys and civil rights attorneys, capable and vocal advocates for their clients, is harming most vulnerable consumers of legal services and is living proof that the legal profession should not be regulated by the very government whose misconduct attorneys are hired to address.

And, I return to where I started in this blog post.  A judge was removed for a certain behavior, but first, the law license of an attorney, an elected public official, was suspended for exposing that same behavior.

In my case - the judge ran from the bench because otherwise he would likely have been removed.  Yet, my license was suspended for criticizing his misconduct that the judicial system decided to immunize in court proceedings and not to address through the Commission for Judicial Conduct.

And, as I pointed out above, I am not the only member of the legal profession (now suspended) in criticizing judges.  

Far from it.

There are a lot of people like me, both immigrant attorneys and American-born attorneys who want to do their duty by their clients, including exposing judicial misconduct to obtain fair and impartial adjudication of their clients' cases.  Of YOUR cases.

They should not fight alone.

They protect YOUR rights to the rule of law.

And the public should protect attorneys, too, and enable them to do their job for the public without impediment or oppression from the government.

It is time to act.

It is time - through state constitutional amendments, though statewide referendums - to prohibit immunities to the government for violating the law, state and federal Constitutions, allow private lawsuits against governmental officials, prohibit any penalties or sanctions for raising constitutional issues in court papers, and prohibit regulation of attorneys' livelihood and ability to represent their clients based on their criticism of the government.

Legislatures will not help, they are heavily lobbied by interest groups from the legal elite and the judiciary.  

Any "judicial screening committees", "judicial pay raise committees", "attorney discipline committees", judicial, prosecutorial and attorney ethics committees, are run by super-majorities of interest groups, so the public is not able to put a word in edgewise.

Only direct referendums will help resolve the access-to-justice and human rights crisis in the United States.

Without these measures, you, my dear readers and taxpayers, will never have independent court representation and will never truly have access to court, due process, equal protection of laws and other rights guaranteed to you by the U.S. Constitution.

On the physical safety of critics of public officials in New York

At the beginning of November, 2015, Delaware County (NY) District Attorney Richard Northrup ran for a County Judge seat, unopposed - and won, of course.  Since he was unopposed, he needed only one voice - his own - to get elected.  According to the Delaware County Election Board (who has been known to fabricate documents in the past), Northup got several thousand votes.

I have written on this blog many times about Richard Northrup's unethical behavior in several cases.  You can run his name in the "search" window below to see those blogs.

I have some more information to add, about Northrup, his ethics, and about the general safety issue for government critics as revealed in my case.

In September of 2015, I asked Richard Northrup's office to recuse from a traffic case because of a pronounced bias to me as an attorney and against my family.

As one of the reasons, I cited 

• prosecution of crimes committed against us before I was admitted to practice law (and started to make motions to recuse local judge Becker who was extensively sued by many people, who fabricated certificate of the 2002 election after I pointed it out to him in a motion [my law license was suspended for pointing out Becker's fraud in a motion to recuse that the disciplinary court has "modestly" called "a client matter"] and defrauded voters as to his 2012 election and who has recently "retired" from the bench before his time, suggesting he was given an order to leave or get booted - as Judge Peters recently gave to her very "special counsel" Christina Ryba) and 
• non-prosecution of a burglary into our home in Delhi, NY that was committed in September 2013 by a known subject, after I started to criticize judicial misconduct - and misconduct of DA Northrup's office

Richard Northrup's office recused from the traffic case, but there was no indication that he recused from the burglary case into our home.

Because the burglary into our home that was located within 5-minutes walk from the DA's office, a violent felony, was not investigated or prosecuted for 2 years, I called Richard Northrup in October of 2015 and asked for the DNA evidence and pictures collected by the Delhi Village Police at the crime scene, as well as incident reports, so that I can pursue a special investigator and prosecutor.

Here is what I got from Mr. Northrup:

1/ that he was unaware (!!!) of the investigation - that is, after my letter in September 2015, a month prior, after which letter his whole office recused, and after I personally went to his office in September of 2013, the very moment I discerned the threatening piece of evidence in my home that also indicated that a burglar was there;

2/ that he cannot give me the DNA back because allegedly NOW they are investigating (obviously to prevent my review what happened with the evidence);

3/ Richard Northrup injected himself into the investigation himself, telling me that he himself will handle the investigation and communicate with me, instead of the police - which in itself shows that what Northrup was doing was simply damage control;

4/  I told Northrup that two police officers who were investigating the crime scene later stopped by us in a police vehicle, voluntarily, without "solicitation" on my husband and my own behalf, when we walked our dogs in Delhi, NY at night, and told us that the subject in question has made a confession that he was in the room where the threatening and incriminating evidence was found (likely, with his DNA on it), and where the location of the room was not made known by us to the subject and the existence of that room was not obvious in the house.

5/  Northrup said he will talk to Delhi police chief.

6/ Then Northrup told me that:

   a) Delhi police does not have a confession and does not have a statement from police officers in question about the confession, and that police officers deny they had that confession;

   b) Delhi police does not have statements from either my husband or from myself (both of us made such statements), and why wouldn't we do those statements again - 2 years down the road;

     When I asked for copies of incident reports, Northrup refused to provide them citing "ongoing investigation" - which was not ongoing for 2 years.

     After I accused Northrup of not doing his job of investigating and prosecuting a violent crime for 2 years, allowing the subject who lived next door to escape to another state and not doing anything to locate him there easily, even though he can be easily located through certain federal records, Northrup promised he "looked into the matter" and then got back to me and told me that "coincidentally", now they actually found the subject in another state and now they need our statements allegedly for extradition of the subject.

     Of course,  at that point I did not have even residual trust in the integrity of Richard Northrup and his office and I fully realized that any statement I provide to Richard Northrup will be scrutinized for inconsistencies (2 years after the fact) with the incident reports that can be honed by Delhi Village police the way they want it.

     I asked Northrup to recuse from the investigation and apply for a special investigator and prosecutor - something he had to do a long time ago.

    Northrup sent me an e-mail saying he did apply for such a special investigator and prosecutor.  I never heard anything after that (a month ago) from Northrup, his office or the County court.

    On November 13, 2015 my law license was "coincidentally"  and allegedly suspended (I still was not officially served with that order, 2 weeks after it was allegedly made), where the court blamed me for not appearing in person at the "mitigation" hearing that occurred before the court decided my liability.

    At the same time, the court refused to allow me an open-access mitigation hearing and said that I had to apply for such open public hearing through a motion, even though the law allows me to have such a hearing for the asking (and I asked several times).  Of course, the court denied all my motions without an explanation and punished me for asking for reasoned decisions on motions, so blaming me for not making yet another motion was - the polite legal word is - disingenuous.  The plain English word for "disingenuous" is stupid.

     The disciplinary court refused to disqualify a prosecutor who was the only supporting witness for a failed criminal case commenced by that same witness against me for blogging on issues of public concern.

    That witness, attorney Mary Gasparini, wanted me in jail for criminal contempt of court for 60 days (30 and 30 on two applications).

    I posted with the court indisputable and unrebutted evidence that transcripts of two conferences with a referee were fabricated.

    Under the circumstances where 

• a burglary with a threatening evidence left on the floor of our bedroom remains un-investigated, 
• DNA from the burglary likely lost, spoiled or hidden,
• a confession is lost or destroyed, 
• our statements are unpreserved and unreported, 
• incident reports hidden, investigating police officers coerced into saying there were no confession after they told us there was, 

AND

• after I was denied a public hearing and was practically forced to "choose" whether 
• not to come to a hearing or 
• to come and physically appear in a closed room, without witnesses, before judges I criticized, their pet prosecutor I criticized and who wanted me in jail because her tender sensibilities were upset when an audio recording of what really occurred in the conference where transcripts were fabricated was posted on the Internet

DID I HAVE A CHOICE?

Can I be blamed that I chose my PHYSICAL SAFETY over appearance in front of a biased judicial panel?

And, by the way, the NY Attorney General who is supposed to investigate and prosecute crimes, including, obviously, cooking court records, but instead is representing those who cooked the court records, tried to drag me out of my out-of-state safe haven back into the State of New York for a "deposition" - without serving me with that deposition.

And, now the Assistant Attorney General Maria Lisi-Murray has asked - and received - permission from yet another disqualified judge, a magistrate who has no right under the law to impose sanctions (officially disqualified because his court has injected itself as a PARTY PLAINTIFF into a proceeding based on the proceeding where I am still a party and prejudged it as frivolous while it is still pending), to file a motion for sanctions against me for offending her tender sensibilities and to state that I have a good reason to believe she, a public official whose salary I, as a taxpayer, am paying is (1) incompetent and (2) likely has a personal grudge against me that has likely motivated her to make false statements against me in the past (it is documented) and at this time (reasonable inferences may be made from the evidence).

Lisi-Murray wants to have me dragged to the State of New York - where it is not PHYSICALLY safe for me.  Why?  

Once again, based on the above described circumstances, it is not physically safe for me to be in the State of New York, and no court, especially a court that injected himself into the case as a party AGAINST me and my husband, can order me to travel 800 miles in order to put my life and safety in danger.

After all, I read what reportedly happened to a critic of judicial misconduct in New York Sunny Shue - and that murder was still not properly investigated.

Danger in our days, to your safety as well as to your rights comes more from the government than from anybody else, and, as I said before, life of critics of official misconduct in New York and in Delaware County is forfeit.   

So, I will stay away from New York, and recommend other people to do that, too.  

It is yet another way of voting against governmental corruption in New York by leaving the state and taking your tax dollars to another state.

To all of you who are left behind in New York, especially to the critics of governmental misconduct - stay safe.

    

Resurrected from the dead, trade guilds suffocate the U.S. economy through occupational regulation

In May of 2015, the U.S. Bureau of Statistics has published a remarkable article about efforts in states toward de-licensing (deregulation) of professions.

The article compared licensing of occupations and professions with trade-union collective bargaining to fix and raise income of union members and stated that the issue of job growth and factors preventing job growth (such as occupational regulation and licensing) has become lately an issue of national importance.

It is also remarkable that de-licensing met with resistance of the licensed professions and not consumers, and that practically all efforts at de-licensing were defeated by market-player lobbyists for the "self-regulated" guilds which was definitely not in the interests of consumers. 

One of the described efforts to deregulate, a House Bill 1006 of 2012 in the State of Indiana, that was seeking to eliminate mandatory licensing for barbers and cosmetologists, as well as for dieticians, hearing aid dealers, PIs, and security guards, was quickly dubbed the "right to work for less" bill - which pinpoints exactly the purpose of occupational licensing to cut off competition and raise prices for services, not, as it is declared for purposes of licensing, to protect health, safety and well-being of consumers.

So, while consumers continue to hurt, while labor market in the U.S. continues to deteriorate and people who can earn their own living continue to be unable to find suitable jobs in the heavily regulated job market, those who already have regulated jobs are resisting entry of competitors into the labor market - to the detriment of consumers and without any regard to any consumers' well-being.

Yet, as I reported on this blog, the situation in the job market may be becoming so critical in terms of contributing to income disparity that causes social unrest that deregulation will be at some point mandated as a matter of national safety.

I think, we are moving in that direction since the article already reported that over 30% of the U.S. work force is in regulated jobs, that occupational regulation is killing small business, preventing geographic and upwards (income) mobility, increases costs of services to consumers while reducing variety and supply of such services - and the lobbying efforts to increase rather than decrease occupational regulation are coming from the regulated professions, clearly showing "who benefits".

It is time for consumers of various services from currently regulated professions, on the one hand, and those who cannot enter the labor market and properly provide for themselves and their families because of restraints through occupational regulation that has nothing to do with protection of consumers, on the other hand, to demand, through lawsuits or pressure on their elected public officials:

• to start aggressive legislative audits of all regulated professions on the subject of 
• whether the declared purpose of consumer protection is actually what happens in the regulated profession, or is the main actual purpose of such regulation, per each regulation profession, is establishing "a right to work for more" in the regulated jobs, and protection of consumers be d**d, well, kissed good-bye.

The history of occupational regulation shows that economical development in Europe flourished when city and town guild systems were torn down.

Such guild systems are now resurrected from the dead and are suffocating the U.S. labor market, and one does not need a crystal ball to predict that social unrest may ensue, soon, if the government continues to allow interest groups to derail efforts at de-regulation or at least at auditing whether occupational regulation helps or hurts consumers - and the U.S. economy.

After the court was caught - it snapped, and suspended me through an OUT-OF-COURT order of suspension (which was not provided to me)

I wrote on this blog about the saga of how I my law license was pulled (I will omit re-telling of the whole story), just that the order of state suspension at the same time finds me liable for a disciplinary violation AND in the same breath states that an aggravating circumstance is that I did not "acknowledge misconduct" or "express remorse" on an EARLIER date - before the decision on liability was made.

That is a classic prejudgment of the action making the revocation of my state law license in valid.

"Coincidentally", my law license was pulled on the same day when my civil rights lawsuit on behalf of three clients against the Chenango County Department of Social Services and some of its officers and employees (Argro v Osborne), a lawsuit that was going on since 2012 and that survived two motions to dismiss and a motion for a summary judgment, was scheduled to proceed to trial.

Of course, pulling my law license because a state judge Becker sanctioned me 3 times after I sued him, did nothing to protect my clients (from me). 

On the opposite, pulling my law license left my three now former clients (and I am talking only about Argro v Osborne, while I had other cases) scrambling to find another attorney who would not be afraid to take on social services.

My now former clients in Argro v Osborne already reported to me that New York ACLU already turned them down after they heard that the lawsuit is against the social services.

I also described how the federal court snapped after I made a motion to recuse the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York on November 16, 2015, 4 days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit deemed the court a party petitioner-appellee against my husband, and when my license was very much valid.

The NDNY court ordered me to make a filing on November 20, 2015.

On November 20, 2015, before making that e-filing, I checked my status as an attorney on the federal court's website.  It was active, and I have the printout.

Yet, on November 23, 2015 I received an e-notification ( the e-notification means that the court treats me still as an attorney) containing a letter that I was allegedly suspended by order of the NDNY Chief Judge Suddaby as of November 18, 2015, 5 days prior.

Today, I printout out the docket report of that case which lists me as a lead attorney for the palintiffs, 6 days after I was allegedly suspended.

Yet, on November 20, 2015 my status on the court's website was "active", I did not receive the alleged order of suspension from Chief Judge Suddaby (and I did not receive it up to now), and Chief Judge Suddaby allegedly suspended me - without notice or opportunity to be heard - after I pointed out to the court in a motion to recuse that the court injected itself as a party petitioner against my husband in a parallel proceeding in two pending matters as of October 20, 2014, and as of October 20, 2014 the court has no authority to make ANY decisions pertaining to my husband or myself.

Once again, IF I was suspended on November 18, 2015 - of which I received NO official notification as of now, then WHY does the court continue to serve me by electronic means on November 23, 2015, as if I am still a licensed attorney? 

And why I am still listed as an attorney for the Plaintiffs in Argro v Osbrone today, on November 24, 2015, allegedly 6 days after the federal suspension?

And IF, as a "suspended attorney", I can still use the e-filing system, IF I can still file, serve and be served in my own actions where I am a party by electronic means, then WHY I was not served by e-notification with my own order of suspension - in order to entrap me into unauthorized practice of law?

Looks like that and  -  nice try. 

At least, I printed out my "Active" status as of November 20, 2015 (at night), and that was my ONLY actual notice of my status as of that date.

Moreover, today I also obtained information from the government electronic source Pacer.gov about all of my federal lawsuits (I am litigating in federal court since 2011).

There are only three lawsuits on Pacer with my name as attorney or party without a closing date:

1. 
   Neroni v Grannis, 3:11-cv-1485 (I am mentioned twice, as an attorney and a party);
2. 
   Argro v Osborne, 3:12-cv-910;
3. 
   Baron v. Southard, 3:13-cv-153 (I withdrew from that case).

My state law license was pulled on November 16, 2015 (back-date of the court order is November 13, 2015).

The letter in Argro v Osborne of yesterday, Nov. 23, 2015, claimed that Judge Suddaby suspended me as of November 18, 2015.

A reciprocal suspension is a separate disciplinary proceeding, which has to be filed in court and assigned a case number and a judge.   

Pacer.gov shows no proceeding with my name filed in NDNY court in November of 2015. 

Since there is no such proceeding, here couldn't be an order of suspension where no such proceeding was commenced.

Chief Judge Suddaby simply snapped and produced out of the thin air that order of suspension for his friends judges Peebles, Sharpe , and his court.

Peebles and Sharpe felt hurt I criticized their documented misconduct in a motion to recuse, so Suddaby gave them a consolation toy - an out-of-court order of my suspension, no court proceedings necessary.

Of course, the court seems to be closely monitoring this blog, and I expect that a disciplinary proceeding against me will be back-commenced and back-dated.

I do not know what will they do with electronic date stamps though, but I can expect anything from this court.

Something like "oopsie", we knew we had to suspend her as an extremely dangerous person (a civil rights attorney who filed a lawsuit against social services that survived and proceeds to trial IS a very dangerous person, I agree), but we kind of forgot to file that proceeding.  So - here goes.

Only, guys, too many slips for "accidental" "good faith" errors.  And too much documented misconduct and appearance of impropriety.

Now, I believe, a criminal investigation of NDNY court's shenanigans, and not only against me, should be started.

Preet Bharara will have his hands full.

I will report as to how that endeavor proceeds.

Stay tuned.

After the court was caught, it snapped

On November 12, 2015 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has ruled that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York is a party appellee in a case started by the NDNY court against my husband (without notice to me) based on two cases still pending in that court where my husband was counseled by me.

Thus, the court injected itself AS A PARTY into pending litigation, though a parallel proceeding, without notice to parties, counsel or presiding judges, and pre-judged to pending actions as frivolous.

Based on that, on November 16, 2015, I filed a motion to vacate and recuse any orders of the court made after the ex parte parallel proceeding was filed, and that was on October 20, 2014.  I keep promising to publish the motion, and I will do it, I need a couple more days to do that, the motion is large.  I downloaded the official (filed) version of it from Pacer and am preparing it for publishing, it will be published on this blog until Tuesday, I promise.

Since courts always require EXHAUSTIVE evidence in support of even APPEARANCE of impropriety regarding a judge, and since I was already punished by courts for not providing enough information to request a recusal (it is never enough, by the way), I provided enough now.

I provided two supporting affirmations, one with 34 documentary exhibits and the other with 9 documentary exhibits.

It is apparent that NDNY was disqualified from making any decisions pertaining my husband or myself after October 20, 2014 (the filing date of the ex parte parallel proceedings without notice to me as attorney of record for the Plaintiffs in Neroni v Zayas, 3:13-cv-127 and Neroni v Grannis, 3:11-cv-1485), and especially after November 12, 2015 when the 2nd Circuit branded the court as a party in related proceeding commenced before these two COUNSELED cases were adjudicated.

And, I already wrote on this blog that I was given a deadline until November 17, 2015 to file a Rule 11 motion for sanctions against top judges of the State of New York and its Attorney General.  I ultimately did not file the Rule 11 motion because of the threats of NYS Attorney General (a defendant in the action where the Rule 11 motion was about to be filed) that I am practicing in federal court without a license (it was not true, I was on "active" status, but I preferred not to play with my liberty, since I learnt courts do not care about the law, and could incarcerate me anyway).

The result of my activity in federal court?

The State of New York suspended my law license on November 16, 2015, but backdated it to November 13, 2015, and then claimed in Neroni v Grannis that my motion to vacate and recuse is invalid because I filed it when I was suspended (I was not suspended at that time in federal court and was not notified of my suspension by the state court).

NDNY, Magistrate Peebles, having read information in the Nov. 16, 2015 motion pertaining to his own and his court's too-close-for-propriety relationships with powerful and rich law firms, as spelled out in supporting affirmations and exhibits, made two adverse decisions against me and my husband since the filing date of the motion, November 16, 2015.

Peebles ordered me to RE-file a document that was filed as Dkt. 68-2 (at the very top of the main Dkt. 68) because allegedly he did not want to "sift through" 620 pages filed (all affirmations and all exhibits included) to get to my affirmation in opposition to motion to compel discovery that became invalid once the court's involvement in the parallel proceedings as a party was revealed.

Peebles also allowed the State of New York to file a motion for sanctions against me - even though the State of New York did not follow the mandatory procedure for such a motion under federal Rule 11.

By the way, the rude manner in which Peebles treated me is revealing in and of itself.  

Peebles would never dream of telling an attorney from a powerful law firm in such a disrespectful and disdainful manner that he does not have to "sift through" what was filed with the court.

Ok, I re-filed what Peebles asked to refile, and, since the NYS Attorney General tried to intimidate me with claims that I practice law without a license in federal court by proceeding on behalf of a client (my husband), I flat out printed out my "active" attorney status in NDNY court and attached it as an exhibit to the filing, so that there are no claims that I practiced law in federal court without a license.

That was on Friday night, November 20, 2015.

Guess what?

On Sunday morning my attorney status in federal court was already "suspended", and that is - without notice or opportunity to be heard, without notification to me, and before I was even served with the state order of suspension.

I must note that suspension in federal court is not automatic after suspension in state court.  I know that for a fact because I represented an attorney who was disbarred in state court and was still served with a notice of petition in a federal court, giving the attorney an opportunity to oppose the suspension in federal court.

NDNY did not have authority to even suspend me, not after it injected itself, without notice to me, in a two pending counseled cases of my husband by pre-judging such cases as "frivolous" while they were still not so ruled by the assigned judge.

I guess, Peebles snapped when I pointed out to him, in my November 20, 2015 filing, that his two adverse orders to me based since I caught the court red-handed in filing ex parte proceedings against my husband in two pending counseled cases over my head.

Or, maybe, Peebles read my yesterday's blog about his own incestous relationship with his prior law firm that results in what appears to be case-fixing where state judges are sued.

In any event, after the court was caught, it snapped.

I will keep telling you how the "snapping saga" continues.

Stay tuned.

The Civil Rights Litigation Protection Act has become a necessity

Most people do not track what is going on in the federal Legislature.

So, my readers might be surprised to learn that there is a bill being prepared that will kill the remnants of civil rights litigation, the way it exists (or nearly does not exist) today, and it has already passed House and is in the Senate for further legislative proceedings.

Here is the text on the bill.

Here is the voting record on the bill.

And here is the call to democrats by the minority leader to vote "NO" on that bill because of the potential and history of Rule 11 to be disproportionately used against civil rights plaintiffs and their attorneys to chill civil rights litigation against government abuses.

The call to vote "No" to the bill (above) contains ere is the description of the history of Rule 11 showing that Rule 11 was already used to chill civil rights litigation.

After it was "reformed" and a "safe harbor provision" put into it, Rule 11 motions are simply not used by government defendants.

Instead, they resort to motions asking for penalties against civil rights plaintiffs and their attorneys under the so-called "inherent power of the court" and 28 U.S.C. 1927.

The penalties are still for "frivolous conduct", and, as democrats who dissented, were fearing, they are already used to chill civil rights litigation.

The same is occurring in state courts.

In New York, the rule of frivolous conduct, 22 NYCRR 130.1, as far as I know, is used ONLY, EXCLUSIVELY and ENTIRELY to chill civil rights issues.

I was sanctioned 3 times by a judge whom I sued on behalf of my clients, right after I sued him.

The judge sanctioned me for raising constitutional arguments in motions to recuse.

The State of New York, a defendant in actions where I sued it on behalf of clients, took my state law license, without a hearing, based on my constitutional arguments on behalf of my clients.

Please, note that constitutional arguments are especially vulnerable to the "frivolous conduct" rule, because the "frivolous conduct" rules allow judges discretion (use their whim, practically) for arguments that are not "mainstream", not "supported by authorities".

For judges reviewing motions under the rules of frivolous conduct, "authorities" are not the U.S. Constitution itself, interpreted by the litigant or the litigant's attorney (which is completely legal and part of the attorney's duty), but additional state and federal statutes and cases where another court or another government body would first say what the litigant or the litigant's attorney is saying.

In other words, the rule of frivolous conduct does not allow certain novel ideas to be raised for the first time in the pleading, it prohibits the so-called "cases of first impression", thus stifling development of constitutional jurisprudence, and stifling social progress.

As dissenting democratic Senators correctly stated regarding House Bill 758, if penalties are imposed for novel or unusual constitutional arguments, there would have been no "Brown v Board of Education" and other important precedents of the U.S. Supreme Court that changed how we all live and prohibited various forms of discrimination.   

I wrote on this blog long time ago about the "mysterious rule of frivolous conduct", its vagueness, overbreadth, reaching protected conduct and disproportionately targeting civil rights attorneys and attorneys raising constitutional arguments in any other litigation.

I wrote on this blog long time ago about the whole "tree" of thoughts (and that tree is far from complete) that an attorney needs to go through before making a motion to recuse a judge, for fear of retaliation.

The target of these rules is not "lawsuit abuse".

The target of these rules is civil rights litigation.

These rules are used to intimidate litigants and especially their attorneys not to take civil rights cases.

Even while 42 U.S.C. 1988 was enacted to encourage civil rights litigation by providing incentives to civil rights attorneys for taking cases without being paid up front, with the hope that, if the case is successful, the attorney will be paid by the governmental defendants, the courts managed to hack up even that statute and put it on its head, instead using it now to award attorney fees to governmental defendants, perpetrators of constitutional violations, making their victims pay their perpetrators' attorney fees, which is completely contrary to the legislative intent of 42 U.S.C. 1988.

So, while the U.S. Congress is toiling on whether to pass or not to pass H.R.L. 758 that seeks to amend Rule 11 back to where it was in the year 1983 and was used to stifle civil rights litigation, the U.S. courts are quietly laughing at the efforts and are bypassing Rule 11 anyway, stifling civil rights litigation just the same, by other means.

And state courts are contributing to that stifling by simply revoking licenses of civil rights attorneys who raise constitutional arguments - and are sanctioned for them as if "for frivolous conduct".

The legislation that is really needed is the Civil Rights Litigation Protection Act, imposing an absolute prohibition on the courts against penalizing civil rights plaintiffs and their attorneys.

After all, judges and prosecutors are immunized for malicious and corrupt acts in office, as a matter of public policy (even though courts that invented that rule may not create public policy decisions, it is the exclusive matter of legislating for the U.S. Congress). 

Enforcement of the U.S. Constitution against government encroachments is no less important.

It is necessary to enact federal legislation prohibiting ANY rules, regulations or court decisions imposing ANY penalties on litigants and/or their court representatives who raise constitutional issues in litigation.

I mean, once a constitutional argument is raised, the litigant or attorney must be immune to penalties, otherwise it is too easy for courts to invent a reason other than a penalty for a constitutional argument to impose a penalty for filing a pleading CONTAINING a constitutional argument.

Ask your U.S. representative in Congress to introduce and enact Civil Rights Litigation Protection Act.

Otherwise, you can say goodbye to civil rights litigation, because ANY of your pleadings in court may now, at a judge's whim, be considered "frivolous", and NO attorney, whose licenses are in the hands of those same judges before whom they are raising constitutional arguments, will want to raise constitutional issues of sensitive nature - such as on a motion to recuse, or raising an issue of misconduct of a government official.