Rightwing (and other) Judges Behaving Badly

[chancery]

I hate the 5th circuit almost as much as I hate Illinois Nazis.

https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status ... 0857292802

Chris Geidner commenting on retired Justice Breyer's nauseating op-ed about his "friends" on the Supreme Court:

Chris “Law Dork” Geidner
@chrisgeidner
It's hard for me to get too worked up about pablum like this. But, the real response is that Ho, Oldham, Duncan, and others are cage-match fighting to take one of those seats in the years to come, and they have no interest in fair courts — let alone being friends. That's it.

[RTH10260]

Panel: Douglas judge guilty of 'systemic incompetence'

By Randy Travis
Published April 1, 2024 7:07pm EDT


DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. - She must go. That’s the unanimous recommendation from a hearing panel investigating Douglas County Probate Judge Christina Peterson.

The first-time judge has also been the subject of several FOX 5 I-Team investigations since she took office in late 2020.

The three-member panel for the Judicial Qualifications Commission decided Peterson is guilty of "systemic incompetence" because she ignored courthouse rules, abused courthouse personnel, made inappropriate posts on social media and, in repeated cases, failed to do her job.

The extraordinary decision to remove Peterson follows four separate hearings starting in September 2023 where Peterson had a chance to testify and confront her accusers. She faced 30 counts of misconduct.

The one that troubled the panel the most involved Peterson's decision to jail a woman for simply trying to amend her marriage certificate to include the real name of her recently discovered father.


https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/panel- ... competence

[Dave from down under]

Election of Sheriffs, prosecutors and Judges and the resultant politicalisation of law enforcement and the justice system continues to baffle me.

With so many examples of how flawed that is..

[northland10]

Election of Sheriffs, prosecutors and Judges and the resultant politicalisation of law enforcement and the justice system continues to baffle me.

With so many examples of how flawed that is..

While I would want to agree, I also realize that appointed positions do not mean it is not politicized. A county commission, legislature, executive, etc. can politicize the roles just as much as if they were elected, sometimes more. One word:

Chicago

Edit: I am going to add a second word:

Cannon

There is no perfect system. The election of some roles were because they either pre-dated a county/city council or the elected role was to separate to provide a degree of separation from the elected council/commission. There is a risk that any investigation of the council or its members (or its friends or family) could be shot down by firing the person they hired. Granted, the opposite would have helped Maricopa county.

[Dave from down under]

Appointment should be based on competency and professionalism - but there are so much weirdness (sheriffs being able to earn personal profit from the jails they run etc) as I say it boggles me…

Perhaps I’m blind to the extent that it occurs here… except it doesn’t seem to… with a few exceptions.
Our police are state employees with a chain of command and proper training and oversight. Yes there is a Minister for police in cabinet but there is ICAC if party/parliament doesn’t act.
Etc

Rarely is their a news article about incompetence or corruption in the judiciary here.

[sugar magnolia]

Appointment should be based on competency and professionalism - but there are so much weirdness (sheriffs being able to earn personal profit from the jails they run etc) as I say it boggles me…

Perhaps I’m blind to the extent that it occurs here… except it doesn’t seem to… with a few exceptions.
Our police are state employees with a chain of command and proper training and oversight. Yes there is a Minister for police in cabinet but there is ICAC if party/parliament doesn’t act.
Etc

Rarely is their a news article about incompetence or corruption in the judiciary here.

Even your city or county or municipal officers are state employees?

[keith]

No. He's refering to Police (and Fire) there.

At least in Victoria, the Metro and Rural Fire brigades are both State controlled. The Metro brigade (meaning metro Melbourne) is fully professional while the rural brigrade is traditionlly volunteer.

Periodically the state tries to introduce professional cadres into rural and experiences fierce opposition.

Annual festivals to support the local fire brigades are some of the bestest times to be out and about in the small towns.

[sugar magnolia]

No. He's refering to Police there.

Yes, that's what I'm referring to also. We call them officers, too. But my question is about local police being state employees.

[Dave from down under]

Local council - elected - council employees - oversight by State Government - very limited law making ability (eg planning zoning residential vs industrial etc - that can be overridden by State Government.

State Government - elected - state employees are usually public servants with a strong union and legal protection including to report to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

[jemcanada2]

It’s the same here. We just vote for our MP federally and our MPP provincially. We vote for more positions in municipal elections but only for mayor, councillors, and school board members (and maybe library boards). No judges.

[sugar magnolia]

So if your house gets broken into and you call the cops, the guy who shows up is a state employee?

[keith]

No. He's refering to Police there.

Yes, that's what I'm referring to also. We call them officers, too. But my question is about local police being state employees.

In Oz, the police force are state employees. The local councils have no role in managing, funding, training, regulating the police force.

[Dave from down under]

So if your house gets broken into and you call the cops, the guy who shows up is a state employee?

Yes.

Who was merit selected and fully trained.

[sugar magnolia]

No. He's refering to Police there.

Yes, that's what I'm referring to also. We call them officers, too. But my question is about local police being state employees.

In Oz, the police force are state employees. The local councils have no role in managing, funding, training, regulating the police force.

That's so interesting. My daughter had a friend years ago that was a cop in Perth, and that's how he presented it to her....as being a "police officer in Perth" without much more explanation. I just assumed he was a Perth city employee, but the google tells me that he could be assigned to any place in WA. The US has at least 2 layers under our state officers. City police and county sheriff deputies. Even more if you count things like hospitals and colleges that have their own sworn police officers who are employees of the institution.


eta: I live in a city that has concurrent jurisdictions with both a city police force, and a state police force that covers some, but not all of the city, and they don't cover any state property but the capitol and state office buildings. And yes, it is exactly as much of a cluster fuck as it sounds like.

[Dave from down under]

If I was in NT/ACT etc it would be Federal Police officer

[Ben-Prime]

I have to admit with the current polarization of American politics, I'd be afraid of a system in which all local (county/city) police, fire, and judicial employees were State appointees sitting locally rather than being responsible either to the voters or elected officials of the local city/county.

[northland10]

I have to admit with the current polarization of American politics, I'd be afraid of a system in which all local (county/city) police, fire, and judicial employees were State appointees sitting locally rather than being responsible either to the voters or elected officials of the local city/county.

Like local elected prosecutors being removed by the Florida government.

In Michigan, some of the state university boards are elected and others are appointed by the gov.

Also, law enforcement jurisdiction tends to be overlapping in places. So, in a place like Isabella County, Michigan which is home to that other school (Central Michigan University) and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe, you have:

1. Isabella County Sheriff
2. Michigan State Police
3. Mt. Pleasant Public Safety
4. Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police (federal officers who are also deputized by the county sheriff to assist off of trust land partly because the reservation is not contiguous.
5. Central Michigan University Police. I think they may be deputized by the Michigan State Police as well. My university's police were deputized by the county sheriff.

I don't know if the small towns still have a local police force.

Up where I used to live we had the county sheriff, state police, tribal police, and the National Park Service Police and the national lakeshore was not contiguous so I don't know where the rangers had jurisdiction. IIRC, the tribal police were also with the various sheriff departments (their trust land was in more than one county and a major road going through the middle of the trust land).

Even here, besides local, county, and state, there is also the Naval Station Great Lakes which may have some jurisdiction on the major public roads that are surrounded by the base, though I am not entirely sure. I make sure not to speed around them anyway. No need to find out.

[Whatever4]

When we lived in Boston, we had:
1. Boston Police
2. Brookline Police (our condo was across the street from Brookline)
3. Boston School Police (next door to a school)
4. Boston University Police (surrounded by BU, part of the campus was in Brookline)
5. MBTA Transit Police (next to Green Line and Commuter Rail, and on major bus routes)
6. State Police (mostly on the Mass Pike, which ran next to the Commuter Rail)
7. Capitol Police (who would secure the bridge over the Mass Pike when the Gov and other officials motorcaded down the Pike).

Was a busy corner.

[Ben-Prime]

Off Topic

The 4-way intersection closest to my high school in South Florida was, at the time (we're talking early to mid 1980s), the intersection of four law enforcement jurisdictions. To my recollection, the NE corner was the edge of the City of Fort Lauderdale, the SE corner was the edge of the city of Hollywood, the SW corner was a small slice of unincorporated Broward County, and the NW corner was under Seminole Tribal Police jurisidction.

Accidents in that intersection had cars responding from all four jurisdictions arguing to force one of the others to claim jurisdiction and do the paperwork.

And don't even get me started on things like students being nuisances while crossing the street.

[Dave from down under]

Arrrgggg!!!!

OK.. our police do have some jurisdiction issue..
Apart from State lines (however hot pursuit).
Within a command there might be boundary issues as to which station responds… or say Sydney Command water police and land police when a body is half on land and half below the high tide mark..
But there are no private/corporate police.. security guards etc no elected Sheriff’s (they are officers of the court), Some Department’s have compliance officers who also have limited warrant powers - but if they need an arrest to be made then they prefer that done by the Police.

Apart from chain of command oversight of our police there is parliamentary, judicial, Police Integrity Commission, ICAC… and if needs be Royal Commission… which NSW needed one for to reform our police force..
( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_C ... ce_Service )

We don’t have any of this nonsense of Constitutional Sheriffs… they would be booted off the force so quickly regardless that the locals support the petty tyrant.

[AndyinPA]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/inv ... 220283007/

In his sentencing memo Thursday, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney made it clear why he was letting Tyler Laube off lightly.

It wasn’t just because of what Laube did or didn’t do – the defendant had already confessed to beating a journalist at a 2017 Southern California rally and pleaded guilty to violating riot laws as part of a white supremacist gang.

Laube deserved a light sentence, Carney said, because prosecutors should have focused on leftist groups.

In a 22-page memo, Carney repeatedly said prosecutors have “ignored” violence committed by Antifa and instead focused on targeting people like Laube – Trump supporters and members of the far right.

[pipistrelle]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/inv ... 220283007/

In his sentencing memo Thursday, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney made it clear why he was letting Tyler Laube off lightly.

It wasn’t just because of what Laube did or didn’t do – the defendant had already confessed to beating a journalist at a 2017 Southern California rally and pleaded guilty to violating riot laws as part of a white supremacist gang.

Laube deserved a light sentence, Carney said, because prosecutors should have focused on leftist groups.

In a 22-page memo, Carney repeatedly said prosecutors have “ignored” violence committed by Antifa and instead focused on targeting people like Laube – Trump supporters and members of the far right.

Not the first time I’ve heard this clown’s name for the same reason. February.

https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... list-group

[Dave from down under]

Will the prosecutor appeal the sentence?

[bob]

Will the prosecutor appeal the sentence?

As always, it depends.

Having not followed this case, I don't know how much the imposed sentence varies from the guidelines' recommend sentence.

A decision to appeal has policy/political implications. Something the executive branch might be especially sensitive to in the months before n election.