Who Judges our Judges?

• Ethics of Federal Judges and Disclosures.
• Early 20th Century: District Judge Landis
• Judges Judging Judges: The Judge who hated Germans
• Pre-1990
• Post-1990 –Adoption of Federal Judicial Ethics Code by Judiciary
• Federal Ethics in Government Act
• Sotomayor/Gorsuch & Penguin Random House
• United States v. Wolff, 263 Fed. Appx. 612 (9th Cir. 2008)
• Barrett & Americans for Prosperity
• Ethics Hypocrisy? Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Co., 556 U.S. 868 (2009).
• Ethics Reform for SCOTUS?
• Ethics Canons for Judges
• Judges Judging Judges: When the Judge goes on vacation with the prosecutor at the end of a trial.
• Remedies: Just Can’t Make It Up

In this ethics program, we explore the issue of judges judging judges. Experienced intellectual property litigator Peter Afrasiabi takes you on a fun, interesting journey through the fascinating history of federal judicial ethics rules and the cases that have led to judges judging judges in often light and inconsistent ways. You will explore the inconsistent use of ethics-based disqualification rules by Supreme Court justices judging themselves versus how they judge other judges in similar situations. And you will explore remarkable cases of judges handcuffing kids from the public gallery in court to judges going on family vacations with prosecutors right after a trial they all were in to even the case of three judges getting drunk and then in a public brawl with someone. And we look at who judges them, what punishments are meted out, and does the system of judges judging judges really comport with how the rest of us and our clients are judged and punished for similar behavior? Rules covered include: Canons 1, 2, 2A, 3 & 4 of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges.

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