Let's Have A Reality TV Show About Judges

What happens to some people when they don the black robe?

We have reality shows about housewives across the country, ice truckers, veterinarians, bidders on storage units and the like. Judges these days say and do the darndest things that more people should know about.  I think there ought to be a reality TV show about them.

Here are several former judicial officers who could appear on the show and probably make more money than sitting on the bench, which is not the descriptive term for where judges actually sit, but I’ll let it go. However, if a judge literally sat on the bench, where would that be?

I offer up two examples and to show my geographical non-partisanship, one is from Northern California and one is from SoCal.

Exhibit 1—retired Judge Bruce Mills, who sat on the Contra Costa County [in the San Francisco East Bay] for 23 years before his retirement earlier this year while discipline proceedings were pending. Judge Mills had been disciplined not once, not twice, not three, not four, but five times on prior occasions, by means of private and public admonishment and by advisory letter for various behaviors, including ex parte communications and other incidents, two of which involved his son.

At long last, the California Commission on Judicial Performance awoke from its slumber, and said, “Whoa, enough already.” Finding that the judge had engaged in several acts of willful misconduct, it has barred him from ever seeking or holding judicial office again. Better late than never, I suppose. And as Martha Stewart would say, it’s a “good thing.” What her dinner party partner Snoop Dogg might say is probably best left unsaid.

Not wanting SoCal to feel left out in this rant, Exhibit 2 is a Kern County commissioner Joseph Gianquinto. (Kern County is about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles in the southern San Joaquin Valley. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy represents Bakersfield, the county’s biggest city.)

The commissioner entered into a stipulation with the Commission on Judicial Performance, which told him go home and never enter chambers again. His misconduct?  His Facebook postings that included disparaging women, Democrats, and racial minorities. While the commissioner had tried to delete these posts, his apparent unfamiliarity with Facebook technology resulted in some of the posts still being visible weeks later.

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Here are some tidbits from the commissioner’s postings:

• “When he [Obama] said he was going to ‘fundamentally transform’ this nation, he was gaining success. He was going to transform it from a primarily JudeoChristian nation into Islam. Got it now? Thank God for Trump.” (Posted February 10, 2017.)

• “What a pity it is to watch the RINOs [Republican in name only] run from the immigration order like roaches when the light comes on. They are more 2 [sic] interested in saving their positions, than in protecting the rest of us.” (Posted January 31, 2017.)

• “For the Indian Rez that will not permit the wall built on 75 miles of border on their land — how about building the wall around that rez, fencing them into Mexico? That should please them.” (Posted January 30, 2017.)

• “What would cause anyone to be depressed or disappointed over the Clinton thing? If you paid any attention, you had to know from the outset that nothing was going to happen to her. So, I have lost respect for the federal justice system, but I am not surprised.” (Posted July 6, 2016.)

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• “I am asking myself ‘Why am I reading all the crap about the FBI and Hillary? It only causes me grief when I know nothing will EVER happen?’ /so, [s/c] I guess I will sign off for a little while during the complete destruction of a magnificent republic. We are no longer a nation of laws.” (Posted July 5, 2016.) 

• “As I drove to the gym this morning, my route goes past several low income housing units recently built, and some apartment buildings that are also low income. I did not see a single light on at 6:00. That is when people going to work arise.” (Posted April 17, [year illegible].)

But wait, there’s more in the Commission’s written report

What happens to some people when they don the black robe? It’s not just robe-itis, as I think we are all familiar with that. How can judges display such an appalling lack of judgment, a lack of respect for the rule of law, a lack of respect for other people? How can anyone who appeared before these judicial officers have any confidence that their outcomes were not tainted by misconduct or bias? Did these two lack judicial temperament from the get-go or did the rules governing acceptable behavior not apply to them the longer they were on the bench?

Memo to all those lawyers who are even thinking, musing, ruminating about applying for the bench: clean up and perhaps clean out your Facebook posts, no matter how dated. You never know who’s watching and who might want to be a spoiler of your future ambitions.

As for me, I don’t Facebook, which is, I guess, now a verb, like “network.” Yes, I know I’m a dinosaur. And no, I don’t have any judicial aspirations, but I think that Facebook posts on any topic, other than kids, vacations, and other similarly vanilla subjects, are too big a risk and pose too much downside. 

As a dinosaur child, I was always told that polite people never discuss politics, religion or sex. We’re no longer polite, let alone civil, and we’re certainly not private any more, but for those who aspire to judgeships, it’s never too soon to learn judicial temperament. It comes in handy, even for a lawyer.


old lady lawyer elderly woman grandmother grandma laptop computerJill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.