Merrick Garland Was Accused of Protecting a Judge Charged With Ethics Violations

[LiberalArkie]

Tom Williams/ZUMA

President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, DC Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Merrick Garland, is widely respected by members of both parties. His judicial background is largely devoid of controversy over hot-button issues such as abortion or gay marriage. But two years ago, he angered civil rights groups, death penalty lawyers, and other legal observers, who accused him and his colleagues on the DC Circuit of protecting a fellow judge accused of serious ethical lapses.

The episode dates back to 2014, when Garland was in charge of ruling on an ethics complaint against Texas Judge Edith Jones of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

A Reagan appointee, Jones is an arch-conservative darling of the right-wing Federalist Society and a favorite of presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who has pointed to her as the kind of Supreme Court justice he'd nominate. In 2006, the Texas Observer dubbed her one of the "worst judges in Texas," in part because of her decision to uphold the death sentence for a man whose lawyer slept through the entire trial. She has been especially hostile to sexual harassment claims, once dismissing such lawsuits in a Federalist Society speech as "petty interoffice disputes." In one case, a woman provided graphic testimony about the severe sexual harassment and abuse she'd suffered at work, saying that a male co-worker had pinched her butt with a pair of pliers and another had pinched her breast. Jones replied to the latter charge, "Well, he apologized."

The complaint Garland handled stemmed from a 2013 speech Jones gave on the death penalty at a Federalist Society-sponsored event at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. According to people who attended the lecture and the complaint they later filed, Jones made a number of inflammatory comments, including suggesting that blacks and Hispanics are "predisposed to crime" and "prone" to violence. She allegedly said it was a "disservice to the 'mentally retarded' to exempt them from the death penalty," and that the evidence of their planning and involvement in crimes prove that such individuals are not in fact disabled.


Snip

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/03/time-merrick-garland-was-accused-protecting-fellow-judge-charged-ethics-violations

[jberryhill]

1. The full decision is worth reading

To say that he "protected" the judge, as opposed to being on a panel which issued a 70 page opinion detailing the accusations, the law and the standards applied, is kind of a stretch.

The full thing is worth reading:

http://www.uscourts.gov/file/3318/download

[giftedgirl77]

3. Lol, gotta love the pretzel logic.

[jberryhill]

5. I am surprised that you could read all that in under two minutes

That's pretty impressive.

I skimmed it for later reading, but you have considerable talent to read and digest all that in two minutes.

[giftedgirl77]

6. Lol, I was agreeing with you.

[giftedgirl77]

2. Jones is nucking futs.

[asjr]

4. Is her pen name Cruella DeVille?

[Baitball Blogger]

7. So, he qualifies highly for the Republican litmus test.