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Legal System? How about a rigged game? In October, two Trends Journal articles dealt with alleged improprieties committed by federal judges; see “AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM: A CRIME SYNDICATE?” (5 Oct 2021) and “ETHICS? WE’RE JUDGES. WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ ETHICS!” (26 Oct 2021).
The articles were informed by reports from The Wall Street Journal that, between 2010 and 2018, 131 federal judges had violated federal law and judicial ethics by hearing cases involving companies in which the judges or their family members owned stock.
Those laws and ethics rules require judges to recuse themselves if even a single share of stock in a company appearing in their court as a litigant (plaintiff or defendant) is owned by the judge, or the judge’s spouse or minor children.
Now comes word, also from the WSJ, on 2 December, that the U.S. House of Representatives had “overwhelmingly” passed (422 to 4) on 1 December, a bipartisan bill that would require, for the first time, that federal judges disclose and publish online within 45 days any stock trades worth more than $1,000.
The bill was introduced by Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC), who said it would “serve to fill a transparency void that currently plagues our federal judicial system.” A similar bill, drafted by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and co-sponsored by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), is now before a Senate committee.
TRENDPOST: Not one of those 131 federal judges had received so much as a slap on the wrist, let alone any official censure (or worse), one shouldn’t expect any great changes to this type of behavior. And much, not all, of the so-called “legal” system is nothing more than a political crap game. Judges run on political party platforms and often determine the laws as seen through their political prism.