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In Latest Benchslap, Judge Lynn Hughes... Kind Of Has A Point

I know, I'm shocked about it too.

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Judge Lynn Hughes is a veteran of the benchslap process. He issues quite a few scathing assaults on attorneys in his courtroom and, in turn, has found himself on the wrong end of a number of appellate benchslaps. He’s described by attorneys as “[u]nquestionably the single worst judge in the Southern District of Texas” and a panel of Fifth Circuit judges seem inclined to agree with the local bar.

In a new opinion, the Fifth Circuit benchslapped Judge Hughes for a radical downward departure in sentencing an ISIS defendant who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges, ultimately reassigning the case sua sponte citing a lack of faith that Judge Hughes would respect the Fifth Circuit ruling.

But reading through this case… Judge Hughes kind of has a point? I know, it’s disorienting.

The defendant entered a plea to providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization because he gave his buddy cash when he left to join ISIS. The government sought a 15-year sentence, the statutory maximum. Judge Hughes set it at 18-months noting that the defendant had turned a corner, no longer had any ties to any terrorist group, and seemed to have a positive support system these days.

These all sound like entirely reasonable justifications for a downward departure! Especially when the crime was Venmoing a childhood friend before he went on a trip. It’s not like the defendant was bankrolling a coup, he gave him a few bucks.

Arguing for a harsher sentence, the government successfully appealed and Judge Hughes doubled down, this time armed with the fact that the defendant had already spent a significant amount of time incarcerated and had an exemplary record as an inmate. Which sounds like another entirely reasonable justification for a downward departure!

On this second appeal, the Fifth Circuit bristled that Judge Hughes ignored the substance of the defendant’s guilty plea, without pointing to anything in the plea that contradicted Judge Hughes. The defendant admitted he’d tried to join ISIS with his friend and after he failed to sign up, gave his buddy “what money he had left over.” Accepting these facts as unequivocally true, it’s still hard to say it amounts to something more material than an 18-month sentence.

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How is Judge Hughes the one in the right, here? His comments throughout the proceeding suggest there may have been a little more at play than just taking the defendant’s case at face value:

“[T]here are too many self-important retarded—I take that back; retarded people have a justification—who like nothing better than a headline that they can announce they’re going to get somebody, whether they . . . have a case or not.” | “[O]rdinary routine stuff does not get done because we’re spending all our resources with people like Eric Holder at a podium holding press conferences on people he’s going to crush. . . .”

So, this might be more about “anything the Obama administration wants, I’m not going to give.” A later footnote includes Hughes attacking the EPA and the SEC for some reason in the context of this matter.

Whatever. Broken clocks are right twice a day and all that rot.

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior 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. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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