Preamble: The focus of this blog is on Delaware business litigation. Though I primarily summarize Chancery Court and Supreme Court cases as well as related cases and commentary, once in a while a topic of overarching import to all lawyers is included.
Courtesy of law professor Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit blog, is a link to a story in today’s National Review Online about a federal judge who was impeached in the 1980s based on bribery charges. He is accused of taking $150,000 in return for commuting a sentence for convicted felons. Here is the link: Byron York on Alcee Hastings on National Review Online. Most readers of this blog would be interested in the details of an intricate FBI sting operation, described in the article at the above link, that would warrant the rare impeachment of a federal judge, and his removal from the bench after a trial in the U.S. Senate.
That same judge is now a U.S. Congressman. (Yes, a member of the same body that voted to impeach him). He is now serving with many of the same members who supported his impeachment in the 1980s (at the time, and once again, when the Congress was controlled by democrats.) There is a chance that he may be the next Chair of the House Intelligence Committee. So, it is possible that he is not qualified to be a federal judge, but he may qualify to hold one of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government. The above article also describes how Rep. Conyers, who led the impeachment effort, addressed the accusations at the time that the impeachment was fueled in part by racism.
POSTSCRIPT: I want to add a link to an article in the publication called The Futurist, also via Glenn Reynolds’ blog noted above, which provides a thoughtful analysis of 10 major reasons why the U.S. will continue to be the world’s only superpower by the year 2030. Regardless of its impact on the position of the U.S. in the world, the integrity of our judiciary and government officials in general is, in my view, a key to the future well-being of our country.