The Ninth Circuit is worried. Not about the coming constitutional crisis a Trump presidency would certainly bring, but about a district court judge. One of their own, Judge Robert C. Jones, has a penchant for… unprofessional behavior. In their most recent handling of Judge Jones, he is being castigated for his action as presiding judge in a case about Burning Man.
We’ve covered the case before, but the short version is Judge Jones was snippy with both parties, called attorney Annette Hurst “mealy-mouthed,” directed that the record document his laughter, and told an attorney to “sit down” and “go back to law school.” When the lawyer in question, Hurst, tried again to make her argument, Judge Jones called on the U.S. Marshals for back up, prompting our own JoePa to joke:
This guy called in a U.S. marshal because he didn’t want a lawyer to finish her sentence? If you’re feeling unduly threatened by lawyers who want to make arguments, maybe district judge isn’t the gig for you. It’s not like the lawyer was some dirty hippie — she’s an Orrick partner. Even in the San Francisco office, Biglaw partners tend to be more straight-laced than that.
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But the Ninth Circuit saw the incident as decidedly less funny, as the Nevada Appeal notes:
“We have in the past expressed concern over the district’s court’s handling of a number of cases that have reached this court, and we unfortunately must do so again here,” Chief Circuit Judge Sidney Thomas wrote in a unanimous four-page memo issued Wednesday in San Francisco.
Thomas said in granting the Burning Man lawyers’ appeal that he was remanding the case back to district court and instructing Nevada’s chief U.S. district judge to assign the case to a different judge. He listed six cases in which the 9th Circuit reluctantly has issued similar orders involving Jones since 2012 — five in just the last two years.
Perusing through Judge Jones’s appearances in our pages over the last few years is like a master class in how not to act on the bench. Usually there is a fair amount of embarrassment or at least chagrin about being overturned by a higher court, but not Judge Jones. He’s fresh out of f*cks to give, but not in the adorable Julie Andrews meme kind of a way, more like an old cantankerous man who just no longer cares about decorum or the mores of his profession.
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Judge Jones has recently moved to senior status, and, if you listen carefully, you can nearly hear a sigh of relief from the circuit court that he won’t have as many cases to handle so unprofessionally. In the last two years, FIVE cases from Judge Jones’s docket had to be remanded to other judges because of his behavior. This reads more like a frustrated teacher dealing with an unruly student that forgot their meds than how you’d expect an Article III judge to act. But that’s the world Judge Jones has created, and we just get to enjoy the fireworks.
9th Circuit rules on Burning Man, slaps judge in Reno Again [Nevada Appeal]
Earlier: Federal Judge Sides With Protesting Ranchers, Earns Massive Benchslap
Benchslap of the Day: Trust Judge Reinhardt, He’s An Expert
Benchslap of the Day: The District Court Strikes Back
This Federal Judge Does Not Like Hippies One Darn Bit