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Judging judges.

ryanrs — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:49:30 -0800

What questions should I ask a candidate running for Superior Court Judge? I am a member of a political club in my city. At a recent club meeting we heard from three candidates running for Superior Court. As might be expected at a political club, many of our members asked the candidates about their opinions on various laws and policies (marriage equality, drug laws, three strikes, etc). Unfortunately, that's a bit like asking an umpire who's their favorite team. All three candidates rightly declined to answer such questions.

After the somewhat misguided Q&A session, I approached each candidate and spoke with them for ten minutes or so. At the end, I asked if I could email them a few questions. All agreed.

So what are some good questions to ask? Keep in mind we're talking about Superior Court. Reddit's Top 10 Injustices On The Internets is beside the point. A Superior Court judge does not create precedent, he follows it.

On a more general note, how should a genuinely interested citizen evaluate judicial candidates for Superior Court? They have no record, no political platform, no name recognition, and no press coverage. Do I just go by endorsements?

I should point out that these candidates aren't exactly running against each other. The election is still seven months away and it is not known how many seats will be open. It's possible there will be as many open seats as candidates.

Here's what each candidate has been doing for the last decade or so:
* Alice is an attorney at the public defender's office.
* Bob is senior counsel at a private firm specializing in civil litigation.
* Carl is a staff attorney for a California Supreme Court Justice.

Note: I'd like to keep the names of the candidates out of the thread. No candidate has a significant google footprint. All are probably running vanity searches on a daily basis. If a name is mentioned, that candidate is guaranteed to read this thread. For various reasons, I'd like to avoid that. If you're curious, memail me.

What can the judge do to Orly Taitz?

Flunkie — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:26:10 -0800

What can the judge do to Orly Taitz? In response to her unlawyerly behavior in a lawsuit that she filed on behalf of an Army captain, alleging that Barack Obama is not actually the president, and therefore the captain has no obligation to follow her deployment orders, a judge recently ordered lawyer/dentist/real estate agent/Birther extraordinaire Orly Taitz to explain why he should not fine her ten thousand dollars.

The deadline that the judge gave for Taitz to file the explanation was last Friday. Instead of such an explanation, Taitz filed a motion for an extension of the deadline, along with a motion for the judge to recuse himself, based on some truly wacky allegations, such as the judge allegedly owning Microsoft stock, and Microsoft allegedly being aligned with the "de facto president", or an alleged sighting of Attorney General Holder in a coffee shop near the judge's office, allegedly proving that the judge is in the "de facto" president's pocket.

My question is: What can the judge do about this sort of thing?

Obviously he can fine her $10,000. Can he fine her more? Can he throw her in jail? For how long? Can he bring criminal charges? What kind? Or civil charges? Can he have her disbarred? Or recommend that she be disbarred?

What defense does she have against whatever the judge can do, other than to stop yapping?

If it matters, assume that her behavior just keeps continuing indefinitely.

How do I stop judging people?

abdulf — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 07:24:47 -0800

How do I stop judging people and relate to them as equals? I noticed the people I really admire are those who are respected by a diverse group of people.

I suppose they have charisma. They're usually confident, polite, good listeners. They make the people they talk to feel important. They give compliments that feel sincere. However, they also have an ability to relate to people I wouldn't imagine being in their social circles.

They aren't particularly wealthy, smart, beautiful or powerful. They seem to be comfortable with everyone. It's like they talk to a complete stranger and they've known them for years. Perhaps they would be great politicians but lack the interest for that kind of work.

Anyway, I would like to be this kind of person. I think it would make for a more interesting and fulfilling life, to be able to connect better with more people.

I've been able to do this when traveling. I think it's because I was an outsider and I didn't know the rules of the society and the usual cues were not there. I talked to everyone and everyone talked to me. I was also interested in people because it was another culture.

However, back at home, in the US, I have trouble continuing this.

I know I have this issue where I judge people and that subtly works into how I relate to people. For example, I have a graduate degree, and some part of my brain ranks me as being better than someone with less education. I have friends with just a high school education but even they admit that in first impressions, I gave off a vibe that I was better than them. (see what I did there? "just" a high school education. I gotta stop!) Another example is money. I claim that money doesn't matter, but I feel like I'm more interested in the person driving a Mercedes than someone who pulls up in a Honda. At the same time, I loathe the person in the Mercedes for conspicuous consumption while admiring the Honda driver for practicality. But why can't I seem to ignore the car they drive?

I know prejudice and stereotyping helps us survive, but I'm not sure these are the kinds of prejudices that are helpful.

So I need to work on these first impressions. I find people interesting, but these judgments are causing me to give off subtle cues that make people feel less trusting or less likely to reciprocate. In other words, when I talk to someone, I'm coming to them as someone above them or someone below them.

It's hard to say what I am specifically doing to convey this. I know I'm the kind of person that has to believe in something to portray it convincingly. So what can a relatively ambitious person read, think about or do on a daily basis to eliminate or better control these judging thoughts?

How do I combat these, materialistic (for the lack of a better word), prejudices that impair my current and potential relationships?

How do I stop thinking I'm better or worse than other people so that I can get along with different people?

(note: I'm not worried about people judging me. Well I am, sorta, but there are metafilter posts on that. I'm concerned with my judgment of others)

When Traffic Court gets ugly

rileyray3000 — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:40:02 -0800

So I went to traffic court last week in the city of Los Angeles. I spent a week preparing for it. And I lost. And it got ugly. Largely because of a Judge Pro-Tem who went to town on me because I tried to fight my case. It was so ugly I’m springing the $86.50 it costs these days to get a copy of the tape. So my question is, now that I've lost, what are my options? (much much more inside) So I was ticketed for making a U-turn in a business district. I picked up the book "Fight Your Ticket and Win in California" and, following the instructions in the book, proceeded to build my case. I took google maps pictures proving from where the officer turned around, he could not possibly have seen me, I prepared objections to the officer's reading of his notes, I took pictures of the area he said was a double line on the ticket and blew them up 13x19 to prove it was not the case. I made a list of questions to ask in court of the officer.

Then I got there. And it all went to hell.

In fairness, the book didn't cover judge pro-tems. As others have told me since, they're usually lawyers who've been given a slot in the traffic court to handle the overflow of cases and are usually a lot less schooled in the traffic laws.

My very first question for the judge was "have there been any amendments to the ticket?" as instructed and after that it all went downhill. Literally EVERY SINGLE THING I DID he hated me for. When I raised an objection to the officer reading from his notes, I never even got to cite the evidence code for my objection. What I got was

"THIS IS NOT YOUR COURTOOM! THIS IS MY COURTROOM!"

Under questioning the officer misidentified my car as an Acura (it's an Audi) he admitted he wrote the wrong Vehicle Code for the ticket and he said there was no left turn lane at the area when overhead photos showed there was.

And every single thing I got him to admit just got him more and more steamed at me. IN the end he decided against me and, in keeping with the decisions of People V. Wozniak and People v Enochs I requested traffic school. He denied my request because I had "wasted the court's time"

So my question is, what do I do now?

1) I've got a point on my license. is there anything I can do about that? From appealing the conviction to the sneaky (applying for a driver's license in another state and then changing it back in 6 months).

2) Who do I complain to about this guy? I mean he was horrible. He literally interpreted my bringing materials to fight my case as a slap in his face. He acted as prosecutor and a hostile one at that.

3) Is there anything else I can or should do for some sort of moral victory if there's nothing else left? Like post the judge's tirade's to the internet in some way? Or get some consumer reporters in there to cover the fact that the baliffs are telling people unless they ask for traffic school they can't be considered for it after the fact (which is completely untrue).

4) I make a good living and, from my first experience ever with it, I'm morally outraged. Is this the sort of thing I should be fighting against on general principle because I have the means?

How do I help a Judge in NC get elected?

DetonatedManiac — Sun, 18 May 2008 11:44:43 -0800

CampaignFilter: Help me get a Judge Elected in Wake County NC. What is the most effective method to campaign with a limited budget? We apparently have access to a robo-dialer but no call lists. I have just been drafted to help a Lawyer who works in the office next to ours get elected Judge (I believe District Court Judge) in Wake County North Carolina. He has never really run an election campaign before, so he is not really "organized". He also has a limited campaign funds.

He is on the ballot and was un-opposed in the primary. Now what?

I have some limited experience with partisan political campaigns, but never a judge race (which is ostensibly "non-partisan"). What are the best tactics and are there any election laws or guidelines I need to know about with this being a "non-partisan" campaign?

He apparently has a friend with a robo-call machine, but it sounds like he has no database of names to call, so advice on how to construct a good political call list from scratch is appreciated.

GRAND JURY YO!

madmamasmith — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:37:53 -0800

Do all misdemeanor cases get to bypass the grand jury? Is there such a thing as a federal misdemeanor? I know FEDERAL capital offenses must go before a grand jury and each STATE handles this differently, ie NY both sides and a judge, no grand jury. But I am confused on this process...help, test tommorrow!!

Dream job...

PWA_BadBoy — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 23:03:26 -0800

How does one go about becoming a Miss Hawaiian Tropic judge? I saw it in the paper the other day - an editorialist in the 24 Hours newspaper in my city was asked to be a judge and I thought "man, that's gotta be the coolest job ever". But what does it take? Do you have to sign up? Is there an interview process?

exact quote re copyright from a SCOTUS judge

Jairus — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:53:22 -0800

I'm looking for a quote by (I believe) a SCOTUS judge, who said that the purpose of copyright law is to protect the public domain first, and allow exploitation of creative works second.

I lost some of my notes on copyright, and extensive googling has turned up very little. I think Lessig might've referenced it in an interview/post somewhere on the net, but I'm having a hard time locating it. I turn to you, oh great Mefites.