Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench • Hacker News Board

Re: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

#11

Post by linuxftw » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 6:59 PM UTC

dependenttypes wrote: post #6

Not sure if this is relevant to this but I would like to remind you that a US judge can order to you be sterilized without your knowledge and you can do nothing about it nor can anything be done to the judge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stump_v._Sparkman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_v._Bell

So weird how the government routinely grants immunity to themselves, especially the judicial branch. I don't know when the judiciary decide it was the final say in all matters on earth, but fundamentally that is broken.

Re: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

#12

Post by mdorazio » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 7:00 PM UTC

augustt wrote: post #4

jimbob45 wrote: post #2

> Instead, the judicial commission and Hayes reached a deal. The former Eagle Scout would serve an 11-month unpaid suspension. Do these articles not get reviewed before publication? How is being an Eagle Scout relevant to this story?

Why not? It's an interesting point that he was a Boy Scout, an organization whose statement is "to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes", and he went on to be a terrible human being.

Worth noting is that the Boy Scout organization itself declared bankruptcy as a result of ongoing scandals and lawsuits.

Re: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

#13

Post by stx » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 7:00 PM UTC

linuxftw wrote: post #7

meddlepal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of stupidity you get with elected judges.

Just Democracy in action here. This is what the people voted for. Unless you believe that the government's power should be limited in some way.

I don't think people literally voted for the judge to lock up a single mother of 3 girls for 500 days because of unpaid traffic tickets.

They voted for a judge because they thought he would be "tough on crime", or some other slogan. I am really speculating here. The reason though is a lack of information on the voters part. I am not sure how we solve that problem though.

Judges like this should be put disbarred so that they cant practice law or serve time themselves.

Re: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

#14

Post by ipython » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 7:02 PM UTC

downshun wrote: post #8

dependenttypes wrote: post #6

Not sure if this is relevant to this but I would like to remind you that a US judge can order to you be sterilized without your knowledge and you can do nothing about it nor can anything be done to the judge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stump_v._Sparkman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_v._Bell

(1978) (1927)

Unless those rulings have since been overturned, they are still precedent and therefore relevant. They don’t just expire.

For example, the judges involved in the “cash for kids” scandal had their rulings reviewed using a rule established in the 18th century:

> Acting under a rarely used power established in 1722 and reserved for extraordinary circumstances, known as "King's Bench jurisdiction",[58] the Pennsylvania Supreme Court appointed Senior Judge Arthur Grim of the Berks County Court of Common Pleas as special master to review all juvenile cases handled by Ciavarella

Re: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

#15

Post by ipython » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 7:05 PM UTC

chidog12 wrote: post #3

> Judge Les Hayes once sentenced a single mother to 496 days behind bars for failing to pay traffic tickets. The sentence was so stiff it exceeded the jail time Alabama allows for negligent homicide. > Johnson’s three children were cast into foster care while she was incarcerated. One daughter was molested, state records show. Another was physically abused. Speechless... Makes my blood boil

Don’t forget the 2008 kids for cash scandal: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal. At least those judges were eventually tried and are serving time.

Re: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

#16

Post by jessaustin » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 7:10 PM UTC

meddlepal wrote: post #5

chidog12 wrote: post #3

> Judge Les Hayes once sentenced a single mother to 496 days behind bars for failing to pay traffic tickets. The sentence was so stiff it exceeded the jail time Alabama allows for negligent homicide. > Johnson’s three children were cast into foster care while she was incarcerated. One daughter was molested, state records show. Another was physically abused. Speechless... Makes my blood boil

This is the kind of stupidity you get with elected judges.

This position, like most city judges, is not elected. TFA makes this clear:

A few months after Judge Hayes’ suspension ended, his term as a municipal judge was set to expire. So, the Montgomery City Council took up the question of the judge’s future on March 6, 2018. On the agenda of its meeting: whether to reappoint Hayes to another four-year term.

Everyone on that city council knew, for years, what a terrible judge they had hired. This seems to undercut the idea that appointing judges is some sort of solution to the problem of injustice in USA.

Re: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

#17

Post by orf » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 7:11 PM UTC

> In Texas, a judge burst in on jurors deliberating the case of a woman charged with sex trafficking and declared that God told him the defendant was innocent. The offending judge received a warning and returned to the bench. The defendant was convicted after a new judge took over the case.

> In Indiana, three judges attending a conference last spring got drunk and sparked a 3 a.m. brawl outside a White Castle fast-food restaurant that ended with two of the judges shot. Although the state supreme court found the three judges had “discredited the entire Indiana judiciary,” each returned to the bench after a suspension.

> In Utah, a judge texted a video of a man’s scrotum to court clerks. He was reprimanded but remains on the bench.

Damn.

Re: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

#18

Post by pmoriarty » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 7:13 PM UTC

meddlepal wrote: post #5

chidog12 wrote: post #3

> Judge Les Hayes once sentenced a single mother to 496 days behind bars for failing to pay traffic tickets. The sentence was so stiff it exceeded the jail time Alabama allows for negligent homicide. > Johnson’s three children were cast into foster care while she was incarcerated. One daughter was molested, state records show. Another was physically abused. Speechless... Makes my blood boil

This is the kind of stupidity you get with elected judges.

The problem isn't that judges are elected, but that it's nearly impossible for voters to make an informed decision.

In the last election, I tried to find out about the local judges on my ballot and could find virtually nothing.

The media has been neutered in to an infotainment machine, so there's very little investigative journalism left even on issues of national or international importance, much less on small issues like who your local judges are and how they rule.

Re: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

#19

Post by Reedx » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 7:20 PM UTC

chidog12 wrote: post #3

> Judge Les Hayes once sentenced a single mother to 496 days behind bars for failing to pay traffic tickets. The sentence was so stiff it exceeded the jail time Alabama allows for negligent homicide. > Johnson’s three children were cast into foster care while she was incarcerated. One daughter was molested, state records show. Another was physically abused. Speechless... Makes my blood boil

Seriously, even if she failed to pay 10,000 traffic tickets, how does it do any good to put her behind bars at all? They really couldn't think of a better way to deal with non-violent offense??

Re: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

#20

Post by defen » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 7:21 PM UTC

dependenttypes wrote: post #6

Not sure if this is relevant to this but I would like to remind you that a US judge can order to you be sterilized without your knowledge and you can do nothing about it nor can anything be done to the judge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stump_v._Sparkman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_v._Bell

That's a sensationalized way of describing it. Judges can't just decide to have random people sterilized. The mother petitioned the court to have her minor daughter sterilized. The judge made a large number of procedural mistakes in granting the petition, but the Supreme Court ruled that he didn't act outside of his judicial capacity. The general rule is that judges can't be held personally liable for mistakes they make when acting in their official capacity as judges.