Subject: * What's There To Hide? *
From: "JAIL4Judges"
Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2023 07:53:41 -0800
To:

J.A.I.L. News Journal
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Los Angeles, California                              January 13, 2007

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The Inherent Right of ALL People to Alter or Reform Government.

The Right Upon Which All Other Rights Depend

www.sd-jail4judges.org

What’s There To Hide?

By Ron Branson, CIC National J.A.I.L.

[email protected]

In 1960 California was the first state to came up with the idea of creating a special commission just for judges. It was then called the Judicial Qualifications Commission, and later changed to the Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP). Its supposed purpose was to oversee the discipline of judges. Since 1960 all other states have followed suit under various names.

It was thought that in order to preserve the privacy of judges and to protect the integrity of the judiciary, all matters should be held in strict privacy. Such privacy policy, however, has continually come under fire over the years from all quarters, arguing that privacy fosters hidden corruption among the judges who are operating in secrecy. Nonethless, the idea of secrecy among  judges has prevailed under the theory that secrecy preserves the integrity of the judiciary. Thus, the public is called upon to blindly accept the argument, “We’re judges, we do it right - just trust us!”

In Los Angeles, complaints against judges tops all other complaints asked to be investigated by the County Grand Jury. However, the Grand Jury has now been specifically precluded by statute from investigating judges. Since the creation of the CJP, all complaints against judges must now be directed to the Commission on Judicial Performance, where they are quickly sand-bagged and hidden forever from the light of day. The result is that the CJP has tons of indicting information on judges which are safely concealed away in secret files, and those offending judges can go on doing what they’ve always done as if nothing ever happened. If the heat gets too hot for any particular judge, the CJP will shuffle the judges around to another judicial district where they can start over.

As if a monkey wrench had dropped into the judicial secrecy gearbox, an Arkansas Appellate Court Judge named Wendell Griffen has specifically waived his right to privacy and the protection of his identity during his disciplanary proceeding, and has demanded that his case be made public, and open to the light of day, rather than conducted in secret.

His demand for openness has caused quite a stir in the judicial system, which raises the question as to why the court should continue to conduct proceedings in secrecy when the judge has waived his right to privacy. This question is now before the Arkansas Supreme Court with the State’s Judicial Commission arguing that despite the waiver of his privacy, they must keep the disiplinary proceeding secret in order to protect the integrity of the judicial system. Hence they deem privacy to be a systemic issue, not a personal matter. In other words, the Commission doesn’t waive “its right” to privacy, presuming it has that right in the first place.

This raises the issue of whether the conduct of any official on the public payroll would properly be a matter of secrecy at all from the public that pays him. It has been said that open sunlight is the best disinfectant. The Bible tells us, “…men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest…” John 3:19-21. Varmints such as rats, cockroaches and creeping things, as with judges, love darkness, and abhor the light of full disclosure. By nature, judicial commissions choose to proceed in secrecy because they, too, love darkness for the same reason.

“What’s there to hide?”

Click on the below URL and check out what is going on in the courts.

Griffen tells high court discipline hearing should be open
http://www.wmcstations.com/global/story.asp?s=5925306&ClientType=Printable

Copyright 2007   The Associated Press.

All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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