Judge Gets In Trouble For Name Calling Over A Parked Car. Now Let’s Talk About SCOTUS.

One of the most pressing juridical questions of our time is: Who judges the Supreme Court judges (“justices,” but that doesn’t have the same ring)? Some seated on the highest court — and by this I mean Roberts and Alito — either play dumb to judicial misbehavior or claim the Constitution prevents any other branch of the government from intervening… which isn’t at all what it says.

Thankfully, judging judges is a lot easier everywhere else — thank goodness for accountability! For everyone else, someone can step in and decide on proper disciplinary action. From ABA Journal:

A judge who called a teacher a “stupid b- – – -” because of her double-parked car should be admonished for the episode, according to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The commission recommended admonishment for Judge Jill R. Epstein of the New York City Civil Court in an Aug. 14 determination made public Aug. 28.

Yes, “Judicial Admonishment” is the pomp and circumstance way of saying “received a finger wagging,” but best believe if it was discovered that if Jill Epstein took a 6 figure trip to go fishing from someone with matters before the Court or was getting a family member’s house paid for by a politically aligned booster, the consequences would have been far more dire.

Epstein is far from the first judge to get in trouble for her bad behavior. Take Christian Coomer who got removed for vacationing on the public’s dime or Alexis G. Krot who threw a tantrum because a man suffering from cancer didn’t keep his back yard tidy. There’s Stephanie Rankin, who got arrested for spitting in a protestors face and battering a cop the day after. I don’t mention the parade of horribles to minimize what Epstein did. The point is that when judges step out of line — which they do from time to time — it shouldn’t be taken for some radical or partisan move when someone wants to hold them accountable for their behavior. And by the way, all of the things these judges did are lightweight compared to the years of apparent impropriety by sitting members of the Supreme Court.

Did Jill Epstein do something dumb? Yes. Should she be put under scrutiny? Yes. But the take away should be that there are glaring judicial abuses that appear to come to light each time ProPublica drops every other week, and those deserve even more attention. Each time some judge gets in trouble for calling the cops on squeegee workers or trying to give a sexual assaulter a more convenient punishment, make sure you save some of that frustration toward people who would dare to abuse their vocation’s commitment to avoiding even the appearance of impropriety for the people up top. Judges are paying attention. You should too.

Judge Should Be Admonished After Calling Double-Parked Teacher The B-Word, Commission Says [ABA Journal]

Earlier: Federal Judge Absolutely NAILS Supreme Court’s Ethics Dumpster Fire
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Sam Alito Laments It’s Getting So You Can’t Take All-Expense Paid Luxury Vacations Funded By Billionaires Anymore
Paragon Of Virtue Clarence Thomas Has Been Given Half Million In Value Off The Record And It Totally Hasn’t Impacted His Judging. Not One Bit. Nope.
Judge Ho Blows Off Clarence Thomas Taking $500K In Vacations Because Some Other Judges Own Stocks So… You Know… Something Something.
Sonia Sotomayor Ruled On Copyright Cases While Disclosing Book Fees Which Is Sort Of Like Years Of Covering Up Yacht Trips And Private School Tuition
Sonia Sotomayor Schools Conservative Supreme Court Justices On The Right Way To Respond To An Ethics Inquiry
John Roberts Gaslights Crowd With ‘Commitment’ To Super Secret Supreme Court Ethics Plan He Won’t Talk About

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.