THE HOT BENCH WITH ART LIEN | Who Will Be The Judge Of Judge Kozinski’s Conduct | For Biden, Hindsight on Hill is 2020
December 15, 2017
THE HOT BENCH
|SCOTUSDaily had the rare pleasure of interviewing Supreme Court sketch artist, ART LIEN, about his experience drawing the court and his banners for SCOTUSblog that have come to define a new wave of SCOTUS artistry. Art reflected upon some of the more challenging aspects of his work, noting he feels he has a responsibility to create a visual record as objectively as possible. “It’s the only visual record in many cases, and I’m trying to not inject myself into it at all. It’s hard because you have to be objective but in a way, you’re drawing from memory — you’re observing and then you’re drawing. You’re sort of shrinking time.” Read our whole interview and check out some of Art’s incredible work.
THE CASH BEHIND OUR COURTS
|Alicia Bannon writes in TIME that there is “cause for deep concern about what is happening to the powerful yet less visible state judicial system” that is being influenced by secret donors looking to shape legislation through the courts. “We also scoured — for the first time — state and federal campaign finance databases to identify the donors underlying supreme court election spending — and found a staggering amount of money from secret sources. More than half of all the outside spending in 2015–‘16 supreme court races was ‘dark money,’ cash that comes from groups that conceal their donors.”
ED BOARD OVERTURE
|“ALEX KOZINSKI is one of the nation’s most respected and influential federal judges. Appointed by PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN, he has served more than three decades on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the largest in the country. He is an outspoken and iconoclastic jurist with a quick, irreverent wit. A clerkship in his chambers, coveted by top law students, often leads to the biggest prize of all, a clerkship at the Supreme Court. And if Judge Kozinski were anything but a federal judge with life tenure, he’d most likely be out of a job by now.” That’s the Editorial Board of The New York Times weighing in on recent allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that were initially brought forward by a handful of Kozinski’s former law clerks — six, to be exact. NYT: “There’s a good reason for keeping impeachment of judges very rare: The federal judiciary must remain as free as possible from intrusion by the political branches. But that is not a defense if the judiciary itself can’t meaningfully address unacceptable behavior in its ranks. Judge Kozinski’s case provides an opportunity to show that it can.”
WHO WILL BE THE JUDGE
|Thursday, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit initiated a review of the allegations against JUDGE ALEX KOZINSKI. The chief judge wrote that he would treat the allegations reported in The Washington Post as the basis for the inquiry. He also asked that CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS reassign the case looking into these allegations to a different judicial council. Matt Zapotosky with WaPo reports.
I COULDN'T HELP BUT WONDER
|In The New York Times, Amanda Taub reflects on the relationship she had to HEIDI BOND, one of the women who came forward to share her experience clerking for JUDGE KOZINSKI. In many ways, Bond was a woman Taub looked up to and greatly admired — which made learning about the sexual harassment that she faced all the more troubling. Taub notes, “How many more women would have gone on to greater things if clerking for Judge Kozinski were a truly equal-opportunity situation? And then how many other, younger women would have seen them as role models or inspirations, and gone on to greater things themselves? Conversely, how many of the men who were able to clerk for Judge Kozinski without having to worry about their own safety went on to be role models for other men?”
A SETUP FOR ABUSE
|“In general, judicial clerkships can place young women in a particularly vulnerable position — the job, by its nature, requires young clerks to work in close and secluded quarters with judges who have the power to make or break their careers. The current system encourages women to put up with bad behavior or forego certain opportunities rather than insist on fair and equitable treatment. It is a structural flaw with the way we train some of the most promising young lawyers. Whether these clerkships are structured in a way that allows women to thrive is important to the health of the legal profession.” That’s Catherine Crump writing in The Washington Post about the system of clerkships that can trap and sometimes torture women who deserve equal, safe treatment from superiors.
RECORD-BREAKING PRESIDENCY
|Senate Republicans just confirmed PRESIDENT TRUMP’S twelfth judicial nominee, setting a new record for the number of circuit picks confirmed in a president’s first year.
QUANTITY OVER QUALITY
|For the tweet of the week, we have an inside look at a nomination hearing for a number of judicial nominees from PRESIDENT TRUMP. It’s about five minutes of Republican SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY asking U.S. District Judge nominees some pretty basic legal questions that were apparently not so easy to answer. (h/t SAR)
HINDSIGHT IS 2020
|CNN’s Chris Cillizza thinks JOE BIDEN’S recent ANITA HILL apology makes clear that he’s ready to do what it will take to win the White House in 2020. He has long been criticized for his treatment of Anita Hill and other women who had similar stories of sexual harassment and mistreatment involving then-Supreme Court nominee, CLARENCE THOMAS. But Biden is now trying to take some responsibility for his actions in light of the #MeToo movement that has created a cultural reckoning in all corners of this country. “Biden, a 75-year-old white man, understands how the treatment of Hill was perceived by many women and, in light of the cultural movement around women speaking out about harassment, he is working to clear up any sort of misunderstanding or hurt feelings around it. He is clearing the decks, purging his past of anything that could be seized on by, say, a future political opponent.”
SONIA THE SAVIOR
|“The U.S. has an estimated 4.6 million English Language Learning (ELL) students, of which 3.4 million are Spanish speaking. According to iCivic, an education non-profit, students tend to struggle more with social studies and civics because academic language used is difficult, and teachers have limited training and resources to help them. Enter JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR.” Alexandra Campbell Howe with NBC News explains how the Supreme Court’s first Latina justice plans to help connect ELL students with better methods for understanding civics in America.