Should judges be "holistic" in their rulings?

Should they reach out beyond the issues presented before them and try and protect or heal a litigant, or look out for their interests beyond the case presented to them?

Honestly, this scares the crap out of me when we're talking about lifetime appointed judges.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/09/22/cause-the-harm-and-then-say-nothing-trump-has-aileen-cannons-proof-of-his-injury-for-a-week-and-said-nothing/

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RedBaron · M

Judges have latitude rule as they see fit. There’s no “should” to be dictated by outside influences.

MistyCee

@RedBaron That's some really frightening stuff when you start considering lifetime politically appointed judges.

How they "should" do their jobs still seems, to me at least, to be a legitmate issue.

RedBaron · M

@MistyCee That depends on the judge. But most civil and state supreme court judges are elected to finite terms, not appointed for life, so they do have accountability.

MistyCee

@RedBaron Sadly, the federal judiciary is basically supreme, and it's pretty much dependant on the Senate for accountability.

RedBaron · M

@MistyCee Nine SCOTUS judges as opposed to tens of thousands on lower courts? People who make it to that rarefied level are quite ethical and competent, or they wouldn't be there. If you dislike them because of politics/ideology, that's your issue, not theirs.

MistyCee

@RedBaron "Tens of thousands"?

That number seems really high to me.

The thing is, Article III judges are all subject to the same political appointment process, which never seems to have been perfect and in my lifetime, seems to have gotten worse, whether you blame Biden for Thomas or the Bork mess, or Trump's picking Federalist Society folks.

Without getting personal (because I've known and worked with a few) or political (because, well, you know), I'm skeptical that we're vetting them right and not really thrilled with the Senior Status deal as far as the lower courts go.

RedBaron · M

@MistyCee I don't know what Article lll judges are, but if you think about all the judges at the municipal, state, and federal levels - administrative law judges, magistrates, justices of civil courts, county courts, criminal courts, family courts, district courts, courts of appeals, and justices of supreme courts, there are many.

In New York state alone, there are 324 supreme court justices, 125 county court judges, 39 district court judges, and 54 appellate court judges. There are 120 civil court judges and 100 administrative law judges here in New York City. Conservatively, 300 judges times 50 states is 15,000.

The federal government in 2017 employed about 2,000 administrative law judges and 10,000 administrative judges and other adjudicators.

So there are indeed tens of thousands of judges across the US.

MistyCee

@RedBaron Ok. I get your point, especially with State Court Judges.

Article III judges are federal district, appellate and Supreme Court judges under Article III of the Consitution, not Magistrates, Bankruptcy Judges or ALJs. There's about 870 of them.