Recently in Ethics Category

It ain't easy being a trial judge. Litigants of all shapes, sizes, and abilities appear before you, and for some with special needs, they are entitled to reasonable accommodation. Most of the time, that accommodation is simple, such as having an interpreter in the room.

Other times, it's not.

The anonymous complainant here, who suffers from a communications disability, is a pro se litigant who sought to have his caretaker act as his "authorized representative" and "address the court in his behalf." That, of course, sounds more like the job of an attorney, as the requested accommodation was not mere transmittal of the litigant's statements -- it was full-on representation.

Should a chief circuit judge lose his post for sending a racist email?

Last month, Richard Cebull, the chief district judge in Montana, forwarded a racist joke about President Barack Obama and his mother from his official government email address to six friends. Several forwards later, the "joke" found its way into a reporter's inbox. Judge Cebull apologized, and asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review whether his actions qualify as judicial misconduct.

Publicity, according to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, is a two-way street. This week, the Ninth Circuit rejected a motion to eliminate a prosecutor's name from an opinion that alleged the attorney had engaged in prosecutorial misconduct.

The prosecutor in question is Arizona Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry Albert, who allegedly misrepresented a drug defendant's prior statements when trying to impeach her trial testimony. (Brief thanks to Jonathan Turley for bringing this opinion to our attention.)