As every child knows, playing dress-up can be a lot of fun. As a least one Circuit judge in Illinois doesn’t, it can also be serious violation of judicial ethics.
Last year, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker appointed a judge named Rebecca Bradley to his state’s Supreme Court. It may or may not bother you that she wrote college newspaper columns decrying “immoral” “queers” with AIDS.
This week, a Mississippi grand jury indicted Justice Court Judge Bill Weisenberger for felony assault on a vulnerable adult after he allegedly struck a mentally disabled black man and yelled, "Run, nigger, run."
The BBC reports that a Manchester Crown Court judge is undergoing investigation after being accused of falling asleep during a child rape trial, forcing the jury to be dismissed.
The Center for Public Integrity released a report today showing that in 26 cases since 2010, federal appellate judges had a financial interest in one of the parties before them. As you might imagine, that's a giant no-no under federal law. Judges are supposed to keep an eye on what their investments are and recuse themselves from cases accordingly.
Mike Maggio is a judge in Arkansas. He is also a big LSU fan. He is also the commenter geauxjudge on an LSU fan site, and he posts some peachy comments there about sluts, gays, minorities, rodeo sex fantasies, and this one time he presided over Charlize Theron's son's adoption.
The South Texas judge who was caught on camera beating his disabled teenage daughter with a belt because she illegally downloaded files online finally lost his job this week after a Republican challenger defeated him in his reelection campaign.
On Thursday, a Kansas judge ordered a man who donated sperm to a lesbian couple to pay child support, despite the fact that the man and the couple signed a contract waiving him of his parental rights.
A federal judge in Brooklyn ruled that the FDA must make the "morning-after" pill available over the counter for all ages, rather than requiring a prescription for girls 16 and under. This ruling is the latest breakthrough in a decade-long argument about who should have access to this birth control and under what circumstances.
The highest court in Italy has ordered Amanda Knox to stand trial again for the killing of her former roommate, British exchange student Meredith Kercher, overturning Knox's 2011 acquittal. Knox will likely not return to Italy for the retrial, as her presence is not required, and after the four years she spent in Italian jail during the first trial and its appeal she's probably just as happy to never go back (though think of those wasted language skills!). In 2007, Knox, at the time an exchange student, and Raffaelle Sollecito, her then-boyfriend, were arrested after Kercher was found dead, partially undressed and with her throat slit, in their shared apartment in Perguia. An apparent confession (later thrown out), Knox's bizarre post-arrest behavior, and prosecutors' accusations that Kercher had been killed as part of a satanic sex game became tabloid fixations during the two-year trial, which ended in 2009 with convictions for Knox and Sollecito. After an appeal, the convictions were overturned in 2011—an Ivorian named Rudy Guede had been separately tried and convicted—and Knox returned to Seattle, her hometown. If she and Sollecito are re-convicted of Kercher's murder, Italian law will require her to serve out her life sentence, though it remains to be seen whether or not the U.S. would approve an extradition request. In a statement, Knox called the high court's ruling "painful" and "unfair." [NYT | NBC | CNN]
Corey Curtis, a Wisconsin man, was about $85,000 behind in child support payments for two of his nine children (more on his super sperm in a minute). After pleading no-contest to one charge of felony bail jumping and one charge of failing to pay his child support, he received an uncommon punishment as part of his probation sentencing.
The Supreme Court met Friday to discuss the possibility of hearing arguments for two high-profile cases concerning gay marriage (one for California's Proposition 8 and the other for the federal Defense of Marriage Act), but "surprised" everyone when they made neither a decision nor an announcement by the end of the day.
Nick "The Youngest One, Who Has Diabetes" Jonas appears to be employing the Power of Positive Thinking to transform himself into an American Idol judge.
The top story out of the recently concluded Supreme Court term was, of course, the healthcare decision. But a close second was the astonishing fact that Associate Justice Antonin Scalia is a conservative. And an asshole! So what?
Richard Cebull, chief U.S. district judge of Montana, has issued an apology for sending an email that equated interracial sex with bestiality and accusing Barack Obama's mother of having sex with a dog. In an open letter on official court letterhead, Cebull writes,
Judge William Adams—who became Internet Enemy No. 1 last night following the publication of a video showing him beating his disabled daughter—has spoken. He wants everyone to know that he apologized. And that the beating was "not as bad as it looks on tape."
The Georgia Supreme Court has removed Catoosa County magistrate Anthony Peters from his position and banned him from ever returning to the bench in Georgia. His "crime?" After his father died and he had an auto accident in 2005, he started taking large quantities of pain medication and acting erratically. That could happen to anyone, you monsters.
It's official: A judge has, as expected, dismissed all charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The ruling won't take effect immediately, however, as the accuser's lawyer has appealed an earlier ruling that denied putting a special prosecutor on the case.
Judge Pat Murdoch (pictured)—Albuquerque, New Mexico's top criminal judge—was arrested yesterday and charged with raping a prostitute, which is frowned upon in judicial circles. But this isn't just your boring, run-of-the-mill judicial hooker rape case!
The lawyers for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in his ongoing corruption retrial are already hated by the judge for wasting time with useless questions. But now they've found a new way to waste time and annoy the judge: By tattling on the prosecutors for "making faces" during the defense's question time. It's really mean!
