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.


Thursday, May 4, 2017

Some history of corruption, retaliation and cover up of New York Chief Judge DiFiore and her predecessors and the trail of bodies of African Americans following DiFiore in her offices

As I have disclosed many times on this blog, my law license has been suspended without a hearing in November of 2015 by the State of New York based on sanctions imposed by a corrupt judge, Carl F. Becker, who has run from the bench 3 months before my suspension when first the New York State Comptroller and then the FBI started to investigate financial shenanigans in the County that Becker was part and parcel for 30 years. 

Becker sanctioned me for "harassing him" personally with motions to recuse, commenced, prosecuted, provided unsworn testimony in and adjudicated disciplinary proceedings against me.

I am not alone in how I was sanctioned.

All across the country attorneys are subjected to judicial retaliation for criticism of judges.

Just how thin a skin to criticism top judges have, was demonstrated in two mutually quoting "law review articles" (which had nothing with the law, but everything with lamentations about criticism and not-so-thinly veiled threats against critics) - by the then-Chief Judge of New York Court of Appeals Judith Kaye and by the Court of Appeals judge and friend of prior Chief Judge Sol Wachtler (who was convicted of a federal felony just 3 years prior to the time of the law reviews) Joe Bellacosa.

I wrote about Bellacosa's "law review article" here

By the way, Bellacosa was an invited guest at the swearing-in ceremony of the present Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals Janet DiFiore that looked like a fraternity gathering

Chief Judge DiFIore, of course, started out by, saying all the correct words and doing all the corrupt deeds - like her predecessors.

On the one hand, she has started an "Excellence Initiative"





where DiFiore, a former career prosecutor, asks you to submit "anonymously" your "thoughts and comments" about how the New York court system works.

Of course, when considering that, you need to know that those who submit such "thoughts and comments" not anonymously, like I did against DiFiore to the New York State Senate
become the target of DiFiore's rage - DiFiore did not recuse, presided over my constitutional appeal from the disciplinary suspension, deeming it discretionary instead of mandatory, as it was by law, and refusing to review it on the merits, as, in her obviously unbiased view, not establishing a "substantial" constitutional violation. 

By the way, I was denied a right to appear at DiFiore's Senate Confirmation hearing and testify in person, the Senate accepted my written testimony, but failed to conduct a criminal investigation of DiFiore before confirming her as the state's Chief Judge, and failed to ask DiFiore questions I asked the Senate to ask at her confirmation hearing.

And, confirmation of DiFiore was a bit stalled, but not for any kind of vetting her background - just until Andrew Cuomo threw the N.Y. Senate a bone by nominating the Senate's own attorney, Michael Garcia (another friend of felon Sol Wachtler), to the same court.

After DiFiore, after having taken an oath of office to uphold and enforce the ENTIRE U.S. Constitution, then engaged in "picking her cases", as the then-Judge Pigott of the same court said the New York Court of Appeals doing, and, according to a 2010 rare dissenting opinion in that court, was doing for a while, in violation of the State Constitution and state statute.

DiFiore now gets to - unlawfully - choose, as she did in my case, as she would do in your case, if you report corruption to her "Excellence Initiative" and you are retaliated against, which of that U.S. Constitution is "substantial" or "insubstantial" for her to violate.

Well, she did that during her entire tenure as a DA, why should she stop now?

So, after she did away with the law license of her public critic in the Senate confirmation hearing, DiFiore continued with her corrupt ways, took for review and granted a case for her husband's agency, and appointed her husband, as a 35-year marriage anniversary, to the Constitutional Convention Commission.

It is very obvious that you cannot make a good product (be it a pie or a judge) from rotten initial materials.

Russians have a more explicit saying - you can make a candy out of shit, but it will not taste like candy.



You can nominate a corrupt person to a judicial position and call her "Honorable", but that word will be only a job description.


New York so far tries hard to mass-produce candy out of shit, with DiFiore and other top-ranking public officials appointed through corrupt cross-endorsement and nomination process where the public is not allowed any real opportunity to speak, and when critics of such process are viciously persecuted.

So far, I see that two attorneys in New York criticizing judges in motions to recuse are suspended (John Aretakis in 2008 and myself in 2015), an attorney who opposed cross-endorsement in elections of judges has been indefinitely suspended in 1992 (Doris Sassower), and the attorney who exposed the mechanism of cross-endorsements in judicial elections in New York in a book, is apparently forced to stop practicing (Susan Settenbrino, see her registration information not featuring her contact address). 




Note that the victims of judicial retaliation in New York are mostly women (3 out of 4).

By the way, let's always remember why New Yorkers even stopped electing their top court judges - because the now-felon then-Chief Judge Sol Wachtler was pissed that a "nobody" without his level of political connections, Judge Jacob Fuchsberg, was elected to the New York Court of Appeals (described here).

Wachtler
Of course, karma had it that, after Wachtler was released from federal prison, and even after his law license was inexplicably restored, only the Judge Jacob Fuchsberg Touro Law Center was unscrupulous enough to hire Wachtler as a law professor - so Wachtler now has to see his enemy honored much more than he will ever be, and has to see his name every day he goes to work, on his employer's building and paychecks.

And, let's also consider the response of DiFiore's court to the death of their own colleague, African-American and Muslim female Judge Sheila Abdas-Salaam.

Her family rejects any possibility that Judge Abdas-Salaam could commit a suicide, there is no reported cause of death, so the other alternative is homicide.

Yet, the police investigation into the death is reportedly closed.

My question is - with the corrupt public official at the helm of the court, was Judge Abdas-Salaam murdered, and is her murder being covered up with the help of DiFiore?




After all, DiFiore was already reported for covering up a murder of another African American public official - police officer Christopher Ridley - and got away with it, I will publish materials from that lawsuit, with my comments, in one of my next blogs, but I already have those materials on file.



Moreover, when DiFiore and her husband attorney Dennis Glazer was criticized in the local press of Westchester County about the allegations of a bribe her attorney husband Dennis Glazer allegedly offered for her election, but refused to pay after her election as the DA, she allowed herself to call the owner of the paper, use four-letter language at him, intimidate him and claim that her husband is on first-name basis with all U.S. Supreme Court Justices and have their direct phone lines - while appearing in front of them.


And, DiFiore's DA's office was involved in racial profiling in drug stops on Route 17, which was both common knowledge in the legal community, and was reported to me by my own clients stopped on Route 17 as to the circumstances of the stops.

And, DiFiore personally was accused of dragging her feet with the grand jury investigation in a police slaying of an African-American 69-year old former Marine Kenneth Chamberlain after he allegedly accidentally set of his LifeAid alert device.  DiFiore's police officers were alerted, came and killed him. 




Moreover, DiFiore, the "legal advisor" of that grand jury, presented the evidence in such a way and advised that grand jury in such a way, that it did not return an indictment against the slayers of Kenneth Chamberlain.  Since grand jury proceedings are secret, we do not know whether the grand jury DiFiore convened was all-white or not.

And, Westchester County, which DiFiore was an officer of for years, the county where DiFiore, Governor Cuomo and the Clintons live, was just blasted by the 2nd Circuit for their 13-year battle with HUD on the County's obstructionist, racist policies for segregation in housing.

In this context, the death, out of the blue, of the otherwise healthy, happy and accomplished only African-American Muslim judge on the Court of Appeals, and the abrupt closing of investigation into her death by NYPD right after the self-praising Law Day publications by Judge Abdas-Salaam's boss and her subordinates, sounds downright sinister to me.

DiFiore comes from a county with a history of racial profiling, has a history of using her power to cover up TWO apparent murders of African-Americans.

And, just a year after her installment on the top New York Court, the very first African American Muslim female judge, who is health, happy, recently married, accomplished, having grandkids and no mental health issues, "coincidentally" ends up in the Hudson River, dead.

Don't we have to have a little bit more scrutiny into this case than was given to it.

And shouldn't a special FEDERAL investigator be appointed to look into that case?

Or, will federal investigators and prosecutors be afraid to pursue the case given the possible rank of the people who can be involved in the death of Judge Abdas-Salaam?

And, will we EVER know the truth about the death of Judge Abdas-Salaam?

I doubt it. 

I doubt that NYPD will dare to explore a cover-up that may go all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, given that DiFiore's husband is on "firsts name basis with all U.S. Supreme Court justices and has their direct phone lines".

After all, NYPD was timid enough not to investigate the Chief Judge Sol Wachtler, even when he stalked and harassed a personal friend of the presidential couple and her minor child, George and Barbara Bushes, requiring a federal investigation and prosecution in a New Jersey federal criminal court.

And, after all, NYPD was also accused of participating in the murder of a critic of judicial corruption in New York, Chinese immigrant Sunny Sheu.  They are, of course, the best choice to investigate the potential murder of a top state court's judge.

So,
  • the hush-hush way the investigation is handled,
  • the history of NYPD investigating - and closing - a case where NYPD was, according to allegations of witnesses, an accomplice;
  • the racist history of the County where DA DiFiore was raised and mentored;
  • the racist history of DA DiFiore's own prosecutorial office;
  • the racist history of DA DiFiore's cover-ups of two murders of African-Americans;
  • the implausible theory of suicide it spawns about a woman who recently re-married, and, according to her friends, was happy and contented with her life;
  • the previous history of non-investigation and non-prosecution by NYPD of Chief Judge Sol Wachtler,
  • the extremely fast closing of the investigation into the death of Judge Abdas-Salaam, and just after DiFiore and her crew published a self-praise as to how good, clean and fair they are 
requires, to me, that the feds step in with their own investigation. 

As to the super-sweet and nauseatingly self-praising publications on Law Day by:


  • Chief Judge Difiore;
  • Chief Administrative Judge Marks;
  • 4 heads of all 4 State Appellate Divisions
trying hard to persuade the public that New York "justice system" is the best and the fairest, after which the investigation of the death of Judge Abdas-Salaam was closed, as I said above, candy can be made out of shit, but it will not smell as sweet.

Political persecution, corruption, racism and murder are spelled all across these sweet articles of these sweet people, and I already wrote "tributes" about corruption of Karen Peters, Lawrence Marks (here, about Judge Marks' cancelling criminal UPL statutes for "public-private partnership", in exchange for "private donations", and here, about Judge Marks' further campaigning in favor of those same private-public partnerships), and Janet DiFiore, and blogs about the other three personages - Chief Judges of the Appellate Divisions 1st, 2nd and 4th Departments are to follow.

It is not surprising that people are leaving New York in flocks.  They should go even faster, since the state becomes downright scary.

If that is any consolation to anybody, there is no statute of limitations on murder, aiding and abetting a murder, and being an accomplice after the fact in a murder.

The case of Judge Abdas-Salaam, and whose path she has crossed to end up floating in the Hudson River, the first judge of that court ever to be slain, is waiting for its true investigators.

But, remember - the State of New York has a history that if a Chief Judge of that State wants something that is illegal, his subordinates cannot say "no", will never pursue him, and will always forgive him and embrace him.

As to U.S. Supreme Court justices fixing court cases, we have:


We also have U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun who, according to Sol Wachtler, visited him in federal prison, met with him in obviation of the federal prison visitation requirements, and promised Wachtler that "everything will be well" after his release.  Wachtler writes about it in his book "After the Madness".  And - voila - everything IS well.  The felon Wachtler was restored as an attorney, is teaching law at Touro Law School and is invited to new Court of Appeals swearing-in ceremonies.

I am not even talking about Scalia and his partiality to fishing and hunting trips offered for free by parties in litigation.

We also can fairly surmise that these judges will do anything for a freebie of, let's say, an all-expenses-paid trip overseas or a "teaching job" with the foreign government, the type of trips that Ruth Ginsburg reported in 2015 in South Korea and as Chief Judge John Roberts reported in 2015 in the Tokyo University.

I provide some tables that I created from publicly disclosed trips and extra income of U.S. Supreme Court Justices for 2015:

Teaching jobs (during work time) and board memberships:

Anthony M. Kennedy McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific  $                   12,500.00
Anthony M. Kennedy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Clarence Thomas Horatio Alger Association
Clarence Thomas Creighton University School of Law  $                   15,000.00
Clarence Thomas George Washington University School of Law  $                   10,000.00
Clarence Thomas J. Reuben Clark Law School - Brigham Unviersity  $                      2,225.00
Clarence Thomas The Daily Caller  Salary 
Clarence Thomas Liberty Consulting, Inc.  Salary and benefits 
Ruth Ginsburg Trust Article Fourth U/W Martin D. Ginsburg, Trustee
Ruth Ginsburg University of Michingan - Tanner Lecturer  $                   10,000.00
Samuel Alito ABA Advisory Committee on the Law Library of Congress
Samuel Alito Member Honorary Board of the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in the United States
Samuel Alito University of Kentucky  $                      6,000.00
Samuel Alito Duke University Law School  $                   15,000.00
Elena Kagan Harvard Law School
Elena Kagan President and Fellows of Harvard College  $                   15,000.00
Stephen Breyer Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Stephen Breyer The Pritzker Architecture Prize
Stephen Breyer Penguin Random House LLC, Royalty Income  $                 116,774.61
Stephen Breyer The authors Registry, Inc; Royalty Income  $                         384.93
Stephen Breyer Penguin Random House LLC, Nonemployee compensation $5,000


Foreign trips

Japan 1 Roberts foreign sponsor
South Korea 1 Ginsburg foreign sponsor
Austria 1 Kennedy with spouse University of the Pacific
Israel 1 Kagan foreign sponsor
U.K. 3 Ginsburg American College of Trial Lawyers
Breyer foreign sponsor
Breyer foreign sponsor
France 2 Breyer foreign sponsor
Breyer foreign sponsor
Switzerland 1 Ginsburg foreign sponsor
Dominican Republic 1 Alito Federal Bar Council
11


All trips in 2015 - mostly during working time, instead of reviewing petitions for which the same "justices" have no time, with all the book deals, speaking and teaching engagements and other freebie offers

7/7/2015 7/16/2015 Tuesday to Thursday of next week 0 University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan Teaching  $            13,559.11 John Roberts air, transportation, meals and lodging
1/23/2015 2/10/2015 Friday + next week + Monday, with spouse 7 Annenburg Foundation Palm Springs, CA Seminar on civics and teaching  n/a as to value of gratuities  Anthony Kennedy Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
4/24/2015 4/25/2015 Friday and Saturday, with spouse 1 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation where the judge is a member of the Board of Trustees Williamsburg, VA Attend board meetings  n/a as to value of gratuities  Anthony Kennedy Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
5/7/2015 5/10/2015 Thursday through Sunday, with spouse 2 Stanford Law School Stanford, CA Speaking  n/a as to value of gratuities  Anthony Kennedy Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
7/2/2015 7/19/2015 2.5 weeks - a tour to California and Austria, with spouse 0 University of the Pacific Salzburg, Austria; Los Angeles, CA Teaching and speaking  n/a as to value of gratuities  Anthony Kennedy Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
7/29/2015 7/31/2015 Wednesday through Friday, with spouse 0 Utah State Bar Sun Valley, UT Speaking  n/a as to value of gratuities  Anthony Kennedy Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
10/9/2015 10/11/2015 Friday through Sunday, with spouse 1 State Bar of California Los Angeles, CA Speaking  n/a as to value of gratuities  Anthony Kennedy Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
10/21/2015 10/24/2015 Wednesday through Saturday, with spouse 3 Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA Speaking  n/a  Anthony Kennedy Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
11/20/2015 11/21/2015 Friday and Saturday, with spouse 1 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation where the judge is a member of the Board of Trustees Williamsburg, VA Attend board meetings  n/a  Anthony Kennedy Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
2/2/2015 2/6/2015 Monday through Friday 5 Creighton University School of Law Omaha, NE Teaching  $            15,000.00 Clarence Thomas Transportation, meals, accommodations
2/11/2015 2/13/2015 Wednesday through Friday  3 Yale Law School New Haven, CT Meetings  n/a  Clarence Thomas Transportation, meals, accommodations
5/3/2015 5/6/2015 Sunday through Wednesday 3 New York Federal Bar Council New York, NY Meetings and Award Ceremony  n/a  Clarence Thomas Transportation, meals, accommodations
10/18/2015 10/21/2015 Sunday through Wednesday 3 J. Reuben Clark School of Law - Brigham Young University Provo, UT Teaching and meetings  $2225 for teaching, n/a as to value of gratuities  Clarence Thomas Transportation, meals, accommodations
2/1/2015 2/2/2015 Sunday through Monday 1 The University of Chicago Law School Chicago, IL Speech  n/a  Elena Kagan Transportation, meals 
2/3/2015 2/3/2015 Tuesday   1 Northwestern University School of Law Chicago, IL Speech  n/a  Elena Kagan Hotel, meals
2/4/2015 2/5/2015 Wednesday through Thursday 2 Stanford Law School Stanford, CA Speech, Moot Court  n/a  Elena Kagan Transportation, hotel, meals
17-Jun-15 6/17/2015 Wednesday 1 Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA Speech  n/a  Elena Kagan Transportation
8/29/2015 9/5/2015 Saturday through next Saturday 0 Hebrew Univeristy of Jerusalem Faculty of Law Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem Speech  n/a  Elena Kagan Transporation, Hotel, Meals
9/8/2015 9/12/2015 Saturday through next Saturday 0 Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA Teaching, Speech  $15,000 + n/a  Elena Kagan Transporation, Hotel, Meals
9/29/2015 9/30/2015 Tuesday through Wednesday 0 The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Columbus, OH Speech  n/a  Elena Kagan Transporation, Hotel, Meals
11/15/2015 11/18/2015 Sunday through Wednesday 3 Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA Moot Court, Speech  n/a  Elena Kagan Transporation, Hotel, Meals
2/2/2015 2/2/2015 Monday   1 New York City Bar Association New York, NY Participation in Ruth Bader Ginsburg lecture  n/a  Ruth Bader Ginsburg transportation, lodging, food
2/6/2015 2/6/2015 Friday 1 University of Michigan School of Law Ann Arbor, MI Participant in Tanner Lecture  $10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities  Ruth Bader Ginsburg transportation, lodging, food
5/29/2015 5/29/2015 Friday 1 Radcliffe Institute Cambridge, MA Radcliffe Medal recipient  $10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities  Ruth Bader Ginsburg transportation, lodging, food
8/3/2015 8/7/2015 Monday through Friday 0 Supreme Court of Korea Seoul, Korea Participant in Legal Exchange Program  $10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities  Ruth Bader Ginsburg transportation, lodging, food
9/7/2015 9/10/2015 Monday through Thursday 0 American College of Trial Lawyers London, England Partipant in Legal Exchange Program  $10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities  Ruth Bader Ginsburg transportation, lodging, food
9/11/2015 9/15/2015 Friday through Tuesday 0 European Institute at the University of Zurich Zurick, Switzerland Participant in conversational program  $10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities  Ruth Bader Ginsburg transportation, lodging, food
9/29/2015 9/29/2015 Tuesday to Thursday of next week 0 Roosevelt Institute New York, NY Four Freedoms Award recipient  $10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities  Ruth Bader Ginsburg transportation, lodging, food
12/17/2015 12/17/2015 Thursday   1 New York Historical Society New York, NY Participant in conversational program  n/a  Ruth Bader Ginsburg transportation, lodging, food
2/14/2015 2/21/2015 Saturday through next Saturday 5 Federal Bar Council Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic Conference participation  n/a  Samuel Alito Transportation, lodging, meals
3/27/2015 3/29/2015 Friday through Sunday  1 Fordham Law School Moot Court New York, NY Irving Kaufman Memorial Moot Court  n/a  Samuel Alito Transportation, lodging, meals
9/4/2015 9/11/2015 Friday through next Friday 0 American College of Trial Lawyers London, England UK-US Legal Exchange  n/a  Samuel Alito Transportation, lodging, meals
9/18/2015 9/21/2015 Friday through Monday 0 Federalist Society Dallas, TX Speech  n/a  Samuel Alito Transportation, lodging, meals
9/23/2015 9/25/2015 Wednesday through Friday 0 University of Kentucky Lexington, KY Teaching, Lecture  6000 + n/a as to value of gratuities  Samuel Alito Transportation, lodging, meals
10/18/2015 10/24/2015 Sunday through Saturday 5 Duke Law School Durham, NC Teaching  15000 + n/a  Samuel Alito Transportation, lodging, meals
11/13/2015 11/15/2015 Friday through Sunday 1 New York Historical Society New York, NY Film Program & Panel Discussion  n/a  Samuel Alito Transportation, lodging, meals
11/18/2015 11/19/2015 Wednesday through Thursday 2 Notre Dame Law School South Bend, IN Book Presentation & Discussion  n/a  Samuel Alito Transportation, lodging, meals
2/2/2015 2/2/2015 Monday 1 Palm Beach County Bar Assn. & Forum of the Palm Beaches West Palm Beach, FL Address  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation and meals
3/12/2015 3/13/2015 Thursday through Friday 2 Davidson College Davidson, NC Discussions with groups of faculty and students  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transporation, Lodgings and meals
3/13/2015 3/13/2015 Friday 0 New York University School of Law New York, NY Panel discussion on Burtn Neuborne's book "Madison's Music"  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation and meals
4/10/2015 4/10/2015 Friday 1 Columbia University School of Law New York, NY Discussion with faculty and meeting with Latino Law Students Association  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation and meals
4/17/2015 4/17/2015 Friday 1 Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr, PA Address accepting Katharine Hepburn Medal  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation and meals
5/7/2015 5/8/2015 Thursday through Friday 2 Mt. Sinai Hospital School of Medicine  New York, NY Address accepting honorary degree at commencement  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation and meals
5/7/2015 5/7/2015 Thursday 0 Association of the Bar of New York New York, NY Address to New Lawyers Institute  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Meal
7/23/2015 7/23/2015 Thursday 0 Bronx Children's Museum Bronx, NY Participaption in Dream Big Day events  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Meal
9/1/2015 9/3/2015 Tuesday through Thursday 0 University of Notre Dame South Bend, IN Address, question and answer conversation, meeting with studens, meeting with faculty  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation, Lodging and Meals
9/8/2015 9/8/2015 Tuesday 0 Amherst College Amherst, MA Question and answer conversation with faculty and students  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation, Lodging and Meals
9/9/2015 9/9/2015 Wednesday 0 Springfield Public Forum Springfieldl, MA Moderated interview  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation, Lodging and Meals
10/21/2015 10/22/2015 Wednesday through Thursday 2 Pomona College Claremont, CA Question and answer conversation with faculty and students  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation, Lodging and Meals
10/22/2015 10/23/2015 Thursday through Friday 1 University of the Pacific Stockton, CA Participation in Advancing Women Leadership Conference  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation, Lodging and Meals
11/16/2015 11/17/2015 Monday through Tuesday 2 University of Richmond Richmond, VA Question and answer conversation with faculty and students.  Meeting with Virginia Supreme Court Justices  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation, Lodging and Meals
12/11/2015 12/11/2015 Friday 1 University Club New York, NY Moderated interview  n/a  Sonya Sotomayor Transportation, Lodging and Meals
1/16/2015 1/17/2015 Friday through Saturday 1 Pritzker Foundation New York, NY Pritzker Prize Jury Meetings  n/a  Stephen Breyer Round-trip train fare, meals and lodging
3/12/2015 3/12/2015 Thursday 1 Bloomberg View New York, NY Bloomberg View Interview  n/a  Stephen Breyer One-way airfare, return train fare
3/12/2015 3/12/2015 Thursday 0 University Club New York, NY Luncheon Speaker  n/a  Stephen Breyer Lodging 
4/3/2015 4/8/2015 Friday through Wednesday 4 Marshall and the Commemoration Commission London, England 60th Anniversary Marshall Alumni Lecture  n/a  Stephen Breyer one-way airfare 
4/9/2015 4/16/2015 Thursday through Thursday 5 Conseil D'Etat Paris, France Participant in a conference  n/a  Stephen Breyer one-way (return) airfare
14-May-15 16-May-15 Thursday through Saturday 2 Pritzker Foundation Miami, FL Pritzker Ceremony  n/a  Stephen Breyer roundtrip airfare, lodging
28-May-15 28-May-15 Thursday 1 Massachusetts Historical Society Boston, MA Lecture  n/a  Stephen Breyer roundtrip airfare, lodging
4-Jun-15 4-Jun-15 Thursday 1 DANA-Farber Cancer Institute Boston, MA Annual Dinner  n/a  Stephen Breyer roundtrip airfare, lodging
28-Jul-15 31-Jul-15 Tuesday through Friday 0 Magna Carta Trust London, England Magna Carta Mock Trial  n/a  Stephen Breyer Round-trip airfare, lodging
7-Sep-15 10-Sep-15 Monday through Thursday 0 American College for Trial Lawyers Legal Exchange London, England ACTL event  n/a  Stephen Breyer Round-trip airfare (self and spouse)
16-Sep-15 16-Sep-15 Wednesday 0 KNOPF New York, NY Book event  n/a  Stephen Breyer one-way airfare
18-Sep-15 19-Sep-15 Friday through Saturday 0 Yale Law School New Haven, CT Yale Global Symposium  n/a  Stephen Breyer Lodging, meals
21-Sep-15 25-Sep-15 Monday through Friday 0 Huntington Library, LA Los Angeles & San Marino, CA Speaking at Wallis Theatre (LA) and Huntington library/ Book event  n/a  Stephen Breyer roundtrip airfare, lodging
25-Sep-15 25-Sep-15 Friday 0 SF Arts & Leisure San Francisco, CA Book event  n/a  Stephen Breyer roundtrip airfare for spouse
16-Oct-15 24-Oct-15 Friday through the Saturday next week 7 Odile Jacob French Publisher Paris, France Book event - various speaking events  n/a  Stephen Breyer rountrip airfare
19-Nov-15 19-Nov-15 Thursday 1 Kennedy Foundation Washington, D.C. Book event  n/a  Stephen Breyer one-way airfare
20-Nov-15 20-Nov-15 Friday 1 Pilgrims Club, NYC New York, NY Book event  n/a  Stephen Breyer one-way train fare
16-Dec-15 16-Dec-15 Wednesday 1 Foreign Policy Association New York, NY Book Event  n/a  Stephen Breyer one-way train fare
17-Dec-15 17-Dec-15 Thursday 1 Council on foreign relations New York, NY Book Event  n/a  Stephen Breyer one-way train fare


And, not to be outdone, we have DiFiore's husband Dennis Glazer who is on a first-name basis with all, but the latest U.S. Supreme Court Justices and has their direct lines, according to DiFiore's own admission, which was part of a lawsuit in, I believe, 2008, I will publish the materials from that lawsuit later.  So, whenever the U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear a case from DiFiore's court, you can safely assume that Dennis Glazer picked up the phone and did his job for his wife - at least that's what DiFiore clearly threatened on the owner of a newspaper that dared to criticize her, her husband and the then-Chief Justice Judith Kaye.  And offered him or her - what?  Another trip?


Here, we are talking the death of a top state court judge.

The circumstances are extremely murky.

The players are extremely high-ranking and known for their corruption.

Will anybody be bold enough to explore all possible links in the death of Judge Abdas-Salaam, no matter how high, and go after perpetrators if perpetrators are ascertained?  How could the police close the investigation in less than a month since her death and not explore any possible connection to the many, many decisions by Judge Abdas-Salaam over the years, which would take much more time of diligent research?

As to an overview of some of lawsuits against DiFiore over the years, and her statements in those lawsuits, as well as the contrast those lawsuits pose with DiFiore's current attempts to create a public image of a squeaky clean public official, I will post a separate blog.

Stay tuned.

Update as of May 10, 2017:

Here are the blogs about two lawsuits against DiFiore, for election fraud and press intimidation.