State Judges

Georgia Pols Want To Gut Judicial Ethics Commission Because Bad Judges Want Pity

Bad judges throw a pity party.

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judge with gavel in courtroom courtGeorgia Republicans have passed a state constitutional amendment — still to be approved by voters on November’s ballot — that would dismantle the state’s Judicial Qualifications Commission and reconstitute it with members and rules dictated by the state legislature instead of an independent entity as it’s been for four decades.

And, of course, one of the sponsors of the amendment is a former judge who resigned his post after a commission investigation confronted him with calling a female attorney and inviting her to sit on his face.

This American Life gamely tries to tell the other side of the story, airing complaints from investigated judges that they felt their due process rights were violated by aggressive questioning. How dare a government agency be mean to these judges just because they locked up some poor person without bail? I mean, the NERVE!

Obviously the accused in our system deserve better treatment than they themselves would mete out, but listening to Georgia judges cry about their due process when the JQC is ousting these judges, usually, for gross violations of defendants’ rights — seriously, one judge pulled a gun during a trial! — does evoke a concerto performance by the world’s smallest violin.

Plus there’s a cameo from our favorite Georgia case of the year — State of Georgia v. Denver Allen. Find out what the JQC did to the judge in that case:

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Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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