Gavel Grab

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• The law license held by ex-Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin of Pennsylvania was suspended temporarily by the state Supreme Court following her recent conviction on public corruption charges and her sentencing, according to a Pennlive.com article.
• Gov. Tom Corbett’s latest nominee to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Superior Court Judge Correale F. Stevens, appeared in 2007 at an anti-illegal immigrant rally, according to Pennlive.com
• A recent session of the military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay was held in such tight secrecy that the defendant was not allowed to attend, and participants were not allowed to discuss the issues debated, the New York Times reported
• A New York Times feature about U.S. District Judge Edward Korman, who handed a scathing defeat to the Obama administration involving the morning-after birth control pill, described him as a complex and gentle judge.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett announced that he has nominated Superior Court Judge Correale F. Stevens to take the seat on the state Supreme Court vacated by Joan Orie Melvin, who was recently convicted of public corruption. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Stevens has served on the Superior Court since 1998 and has been President Judge of the court since 2011.
• President Obama must nominate a judge to the U.S. District Court to take the place of Judge John Bates, who was made head of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. According to The Blog of Legal Times, the president would not ordinarily have to nominate an additional judge to the District Court, but because Bates is to be the director of the Administrative Office, federal law mandates that an additional judge be added nominated.
• The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that independent groups that participate in politics periodically, but whose main focus is elsewhere, need not file regular campaign reports after spending in support of a candidate. However, as the Des Moines Register reports, the court upheld other key portions of the state’s campaign finance law, such as the ban on direct contributions from corporations to political campaigns.
• The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has come under greater scrutiny and criticism in recent weeks after it was revealed that it approved the National Security Administration’s collection of private citizens’ phone records. Live Science reports that several U.S. senators and civil libertarian groups such as the ACLU have responded to the recent scandal by demanding that the FISC release details about its decisions to the public.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered that the public judicial misconduct complaint against U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edith Jones be reviewed by the Judicial Council of the District of Columbia Circuit. The Houston Chronicle reports that public judicial misconduct complaints and formal disciplinary reviews of federal judges are very rare and are normally kept secret.
• Federal district judge Beryl A. Howell has declared a 1949 law banning protests on the plaza before the U.S. Supreme Court building unconstitutional. According to The Washington Post, the impetus for the ruling was the 2011 arrest of Harold Hodge for protesting on the plaza of the Supreme Court building.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• The U.S. Supreme Court has appointed U.S. District Judge John Bates as director of the federal judiciary’s administrative office. According to The Blog of Legal Times, Bates will have to overcome substantial challenges in his new role, including $350 million in sequestration budget cuts to the federal courts that take effect this year.
• The Los Angeles County Superior Court announced on Tuesday that it plans to cut an additional 511 jobs from its court system in an attempt to address the projected budget deficit. The Los Angeles Times reports that the county’s courts have lost nearly 900 employees since 2008 as a result of California’s dramatic cuts to court funding.
• The Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline has ruled that Kelly S. Ballentine, who was suspended from a Pennsylvania District Court after dismissing her own parking tickets, will be allowed to return to the bench. According to Lancaster News, the state Board of Judicial Conduct had petitioned the discipline court to permanently remove Ballentine from her position.
• Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has vetoed a bill intended to ban all uses of foreign law in state courts. According to the blog Gavel to Gavel, Nixon cited concerns with the breadth of the law, saying that it could potentially interfere with foreign adoptions and even the full faith and credit clause of the U.S. Constitution.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• Mississippi’s drug courts stand to lose between 25 and 58 percent of their funding by July 1, and some will lose all funding entirely. According to the Clarion Ledger, the State Drug Court Advisory Committee voted 7-3 Friday to implement the budget cuts.
• In a review of the 2013 Kansas Legislative session, the Topeka Capital-Journal says that Gov. Sam Brownback spent considerable time on limiting the influence the Kansas Bar Association has on the state’s judicial nominating commission. Brown advocated for direct election of appellate judges, or switching to a federal style system of nominations.
• Without cameras in the courtroom to broadcast trial proceedings, victims’ families like those in Boston’s James “Whitey” Bulger case will never get to see him brought to justice. CBS Boston says that the ban on cameras in federal courtrooms dates back to a time before these court proceedings would have been available on TV or the Internet.
• The Kentucky Courier-Journal reports that many Jefferson County Circuit Court judges improved their ratings in a poll conducted by the Louisville Bar Association this year. While most judges received favorable ratings in the poll, Circuit Court Judge Olu Stevens dropped from 81 percent satisfaction two years ago to 69 percent.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose is facing some controversy over emails that she sent to a U.S. attorney in Des Moines discussing a case  before her court. An editorial by the Des Moines Register alleges that Rose apparently violated judicial ethics by discussing an ongoing case with the prosecution and not the defense and consequently lost her ability to be a neutral arbiter of the case.
• Francis De Luca, president of the Civitas Institute, has contended in an  op-ed for FayObserver.com that public financing of judicial campaigns is equivalent to “taxpayer welfare for politicians.” According to De Luca, public financing for judicial campaigns infringes upon free speech because it forces taxpayers to support all judicial candidates regardless of whether or not they support the candidates. To learn about Justice at Stake’s support for preserving public financing in North Carolina, see Gavel Grab.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• A  federal judge has recommended that former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway, who has been convicted of bank fraud, serve her sentence at Alderson minimum security prison. The Associated Press reports that the West Virginia prison has in the past held disgraced public figures such as Martha Stewart and ex-Detroit city council member Monica Conyers.
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the 2013 Bruno Leoni Lecture last week, and he discussed how the courts have the potential to impact free-enterprise. Forbes reports that Scalia warned against “activist judges” and cautioned his audience: “Do not subvert the judicial system to protect and push your goals.”
• The Pennsylvania House passed a bill  that is designed to begin the process of dismantling the state’s traffic court—a body that has been beset for months with accusations of corruption, according to Watchdog.org.  Lynn Marks, director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts (PMC), has voiced concern over the bill’s language, saying that, “the bill does not address the duties of [traffic court] judges.” PMC is a Justice at Stake partner organization. (Read more on Gavel Grab).

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• The 2014 election cycle is projected to have a major impact on state courts. According to a recent post from Gavel to Gavel blog, six states so far have confirmed ballot measures pertaining to the courts. These ballot measures range from  banning mention of international law, and restrictions on lobbying judges, to changes in mandatory retirement age and reform of judicial discipline procedures. The National Center for State Courts, a JAS partner group, produces Gavel to Gavel.
• A Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge is facing a misconduct complaint for racially tinged comments she allegedly made during a recent speech. The Texas Tribune reports that witnesses have signed affidavits claiming that, in her speech, Judge Edith Jones said that Hispanics and African Americans received the death penalty more often than other races because “racial groups like African-Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime.”
• The Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness marks its tenth anniversary today. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the commission has made great strides for diversity, including a policy that prohibits any form of discrimination in court facilities and a manual that advises judges and court officials on how to construct a diverse workplace.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• The Supreme Court is expected to soon consider requests to take up a case that would determine the extent of the power of the President to make recess appointments while the Senate is not in session. McClatchy reports that while this practice dates back to the very first U.S. Presidents, it has been the subject of many contradictory rulings from federal appeals courts that leave room for the Supreme Court to be the deciding voice.
• Among the 131 bills passed by the Kansas legislature in 2013 is HB 2019, a bill that changes the selection process for Kansas’s Court of Appeals from merit-based selection to the federal model, with gubernatorial appointees subject to Senate approval. The Topeka Capital-Journal  also reports that a move to rework the selection process for state Supreme Court justices fell through. (See Gavel Grab).
• On Monday the Louisiana House passed legislation that, if signed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, would increase the salaries of state judges. According to The Times-Picayune, the bill’s passage coincides with the failure of a constitutional amendment that would have scrapped the mandatory retirement age for judges.
• Senior Kentucky Judge Martin McDonald is facing two allegations of misconduct at a hearing  with the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission. The Associated Press reports that the accusations stem from two separate cases, including one in which McDonald allegedly threatened to strangle a defense attorney.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• In the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s Superior Court, the winner, Jack McVay appeared to have been chosen based on geography rather than ideology. Robert Steele, an associate professor of political science at Penn State argues in an editorial for Philly.com  that in judicial primary elections, voters tend to choose candidates based on arbitrary factors such as name or place of residence.
• President Obama’s nomination of Circuit Judge Brian Davis of Nassau County to a seat on the federal bench is being held up by Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who had initially been Davis’s chief supporter at his confirmation hearing. The Florida Times-Union reports that Rubio retracted his support after Sen. Charles Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee criticized Davis, who is black, for comments that he had made regarding race.
• The federal sequester that took effect in March cut $85 billion dollars in federal expenditures, including 5 percent cuts to the Courts, the Department of Justice and federal defenders. Matthew T. Mangino, a former Lawrence County, Pa. district attorney, argues in an commentary for the Herkimer Telegram that these budget cuts may negatively impact public safety and could prove to be “penny wise and pound foolish” in the long run.
• The Connecticut House passed a bill that increased the amount of money that State Central Committees, leadership PACs and other groups can raise and donate to candidates receiving public funding. CT News Junkie reports that the passage of this bill was largely in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision, which eliminated restrictions on campaign spending by outside groups.
• The Rhode Island Senate approved Gov.Lincoln Chafee’s nominations of state court magistrates to the Superior Court and the Family Court bench, the Providence Journal Reports. The Senate approval comes after watchdog groups had raised questions about Chafee’s failure to nominate judges within the amount of time allotted by the state Constitution. (Read more on Gavel Grab).