Judicial Conference Discloses Misconduct by Judge Richard Cebull

former District Judge Richard Cebull

Former U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull gained notoriety when it was disclosed he had circulate a racist email about President Obama.  The Montana Judge later resigned.  Investigation had revealed that he had forwarded hundreds of racist and sexist "joke" emails. The case was nearly buried as moot but Third Circuit Chief Judge Theodore McKee determinedly pressed the issue. The Judicial Conference of the United States has, after much prompting, issued its report - GWC
Striking A Blow For Transparency:
bu Richard Kurtz // TPM

Lifetime appointments to the bench, the legitimate need to keep judges apart from the political hurly burly, and their own institutional insularity combine to make the conduct of the federal judiciary extremely opaque and difficult to hold to account. So it's worth noting that on Friday, the Judicial Conference's Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability, which reviews cases of misconduct by federal judges, published two different decisions involving judicial misconduct where the essential issue before the panel was whether to make public the alleged misconduct or keep it cloaked behind the judicial trappings of secrecy and confidentiality.
In both cases, the committee opted in favor of openness. How it got there -- and the backstory on both cases -- is fascinating.

  Memorandum of Decision Of COMMITTEE ON JUDICIAL CONDUCT AND DISABILITY 

 OF THE JUDICIAL CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED STATES In Re: Judge Richard Cebull

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