Judicial Accountability &
Integrity Legislation
(As amended 8/05/2022)
(a) Preamble. The House of
Representatives and Senate Assembled find: that an inordinate and ever-growing
number of complaints for willful misconduct have been lodged with Congress
involving federal judges across this nation; that the current Title 28 U.S.C. §372(c)
(Judicial Misconduct and Disability Act) is in many cases inadequate due to
conflicts of interest of judges judging themselves; that judicial integrity is
of major importance which affects all areas of our American society. Be it
therefore resolved that the House of Representatives and Senate Assembled hereby
enact the following legislation which shall be known as the "Judicial
Accountability and Integrity Legislation."
(b) Definitions. For purposes
of this statute:
1.
The term "blocking" shall mean any act that impedes the lawful
conclusion of a case, to include unreasonable delay and willful rendering of a
void judgment or order.
2.
The term "federal judge" or "judge" shall mean any federal
justice, judge, magistrate, commissioner, or any person shielded by judicial
immunity.
3. The term "Juror" shall mean a Special Federal Grand Juror.
4.
The term "strike" shall mean an adverse immunity decision based upon
bad behavior as set forth by paragraph (c), or a criminal conviction as set
forth in paragraph (r).
Where
appropriate, the singular shall include the plural, and the plural the singular.
(c) Immunity. Notwithstanding
common law or any other provision to the contrary, no immunities shall be
extended to any federal judge except as is specifically set forth in this
statute. Preserving the purpose of protecting judges from frivolous and
harassing actions, no immunity shielding a federal judge shall be construed to
extend to any deliberate violation of law, fraud or conspiracy, intentional
violation of due process of law, deliberate disregard of material facts,
judicial acts without jurisdiction, blocking of a lawful conclusion of a case,
or any deliberate violation of the Constitution of these United States, all
violations of which shall constitute bad behavior.
(d) Special Federal Grand Jury.
There is hereby created within the District of Columbia a twenty-five member
Special Federal Grand Jury with full federal geographical jurisdiction having
power to judge on both law and fact. Their responsibility shall be limited to
determining, on an objective standard, whether a civil suit against a federal
judge would be frivolous and harassing, or fall within the exclusions of
immunity as set forth herein, and whether there is probable cause of criminal
conduct by the federal judge complained of.
(e) Professional Counsel. The
Special Federal Grand Jury shall have exclusive power to retain non-governmental
advisors, special prosecutors, and investigators, as needed, who shall serve no
longer than two years, after which term said officers shall be ineligible.
However, with permission of the Special Federal Grand Jury, a special prosecutor
may prosecute their current cases through all appeals and any applicable
complaints to the Special Federal Grand Jury.
(f) Establishment of a Special
Federal Grand Jury Seat. A Special Federal Grand Jury seat is hereby
created, which seat shall be located in excess of one mile of any federal
judicial body.
(g) Annual Funding. Congress
hereby deducts two and nine-tenths percent from the gross judicial salaries of
all federal judges, which amount shall be deposited regularly into the exclusive
trust account created by this statute in paragraph (k) for its operational
expenses, together with filing fees under paragraph (h), surcharges under
paragraph (i), and fines imposed under paragraph (r).
(h) Filing Fees. Attorneys
representing a client filing a civil complaint or answer before the Special
Federal Grand Jury, shall at the time of filing pay a fee equal to the filing
fee due in a civil appeal to the United States Supreme Court. Individuals filing
a civil complaint or answer before the Special Federal Grand Jury in their own
behalf as a matter of right, shall, at the time of filing, post a fee of one
hundred dollars, or file a declaration, which shall remain confidential, stating
they are impoverished and unable to pay and/or object to such fee.
(i) Surcharges. Should this
statute lack sufficient funding through its fines, fees, and forfeitures
(including deductions in paragraph (g)), Congress may impose appropriate
surcharges upon the civil court filing fees of corporate litigants as necessary
to make this statute self-supporting, or they may appropriate any and all the
necessary funds for the full implementation of this statute by legislation,
notwithstanding the two and nine-tenths percent deduction of the salaries of
federal judges.
(j) Compensation of Jurors.
Each Juror shall receive a salary commensurate to fifty percent of a federal
district judge prorated according to the number of days actually served.
(k) Annual Budget. The Special
Federal Grand Jury shall have an annual operational budget commensurate to
twenty times the combined salaries of the twenty-five Jurors serving full time,
which sum shall be initially deposited by Congress into an exclusive trust
account to be annually administered by the Controller. Should the trust balance,
within any budget year, drop to less than an amount equivalent to the annual
gross salaries of fifty federal district judges, the Controller shall so notify
Congress which shall replenish the account, prorated based on the actual average
expenditures during the budget year. Should the trust balance in any subsequent
year exceed the annual operational budget at the beginning of a new budget year,
the Controller shall return such excess to the United States Treasury.
(l) Jurisdiction.
The Special Federal Grand Jury shall have exclusive power to establish
rules assuring their attendance, to provide internal discipline, and to remove
any of its members on grounds of misconduct. The Special Federal Grand Jury
shall immediately assign a docket number to each complaint brought before it.
Except as provided in paragraph (s), no complaint of judicial misconduct shall
be considered by the Special Federal Grand Jury unless the complainant shall
have first attempted to exhaust all judicial remedies available in the federal
courts within the immediately preceding six-month period. Such six-month period,
however, shall not commence in complaints of prior fraud or blocking of a lawful
conclusion until after the date the Special Federal Grand Jury becomes
functional. This provision is intended to apply remedially and retroactively.
(m) Qualifications of Jurors.
A Juror shall have attained to the age of thirty years, and have been nine years
a citizen of the United States, and an inhabitant of Washington, D.C. Those not
eligible for Special Federal Grand Jury service shall include elected and
appointed officials, members of the Bar, judges (active or retired), judicial,
prosecutorial and law enforcement personnel, without other exclusion except
previous adjudication of mental incapacity, imprisonment, or parole from a
conviction of a felonious crime against persons.
(n) Selection of Jurors. The
Jurors shall serve without compulsion and shall be drawn
by public lot by the Secretary of State from names on the voters rolls
and any citizen submitting his/her name to the Secretary of State for such
drawing.
(o) Service of Jurors.
Excluding the establishment of the initial Special Federal Grand Jury, each
Juror shall serve one year. No Juror shall serve more than once. On the first
day of each month, two persons shall be rotated off the Special Federal Grand
Jury and new Citizens seated, except in January it shall be three. Vacancies
shall be filled on the first of the following month in addition to the Jurors
regularly rotated, and the Juror chosen to fill a vacancy shall complete only
the remainder of the term of the Juror replaced.
(p) Procedures. The Special
Federal Grand Jury shall serve a copy of the filed complaint upon the subject
judge and notice to the complainant of such service. The judge shall have thirty
days to serve and file an answer. The complainant shall have twenty days to
reply to the judge's answer. (Upon timely request, the Special Federal Grand
Jury may provide for extensions for good cause.) The Special Federal Grand Jury
shall have power to subpoena witnesses, documents, and other tangible evidence,
and to examine witnesses under oath. The Special Federal Grand Jury shall
determine the causes properly before it with their reasoned findings in writing
within one hundred twenty (120) calendar days, serving on all parties their
decision on whether immunity shall be barred as a defense to any civil action
that may thereafter be pursued against the federal judge. A rehearing may be
requested of the Special Federal Grand Jury within twenty days with service upon
the opposition. Twenty days shall be allowed to reply thereto. Thereafter, the
Special Federal Grand Jury shall render final determination within thirty days.
All allegations of the complaint shall be liberally construed in favor of the
complainant. The Jurors shall keep in mind, in making their decisions, that they
are entrusted by the people of these United States with the duty of restoring a
perception of justice and accountability of the federal judiciary, and are not
to be swayed by artful presentation by the federal judge. They shall avoid all
influence by judicial and government entities. The statute of limitations on any
civil suit brought pursuant to this statute against a federal judge shall not
commence until the rendering of a final decision by the Special Federal Grand
Jury. Special Federal Grand Jury files shall always remain public record
following their final determination. A majority of thirteen shall determine any
matter.
(q) Removal. Whenever any
federal judge shall have received more than three strikes, the federal judge
shall automatically be brought up on charges before Congress for Articles of
Impeachment by the Special Federal Grand Jury through its special prosecutor for
bad behavior and willful misconduct. Congress thereafter shall commence to a
vote on such Articles of Impeachment. Upon a conviction, the federal judge shall
be permanently removed from office. He may also be held liable under any other
appropriate criminal or civil proceeding.
(r) Indictment. Should the
Special Federal Grand Jury also find probable cause of criminal conduct on the
part of any federal judge against whom a complaint is docketed, it shall have
the power to indict such federal judge except where double jeopardy attaches.
The Special Federal Grand Jury shall, without voir dire beyond personal
relationship, cause to be impaneled special trial jurors, plus alternates, which
trial jurors shall be instructed that they have power to judge both law and
fact. The Special Federal Grand Jury shall also select a non-governmental
special prosecutor and a federal judge with no more than four years on the bench
from a state other than that of the defendant judge, (or outside of the District
of Columbia, if the case so be). The trial jury shall be selected from the same
pool of jury candidates as any regular federal jury. The special prosecutor
shall thereafter prosecute the cause to a conclusion, having all the powers of
any other prosecutor within these United States. Upon conviction, the special
trial jury shall have exclusive power of sentencing (limited to incarceration,
fines and/or community service), which shall be derived by an average of the
sentences of the trial jurors.
(s) Criminal Procedures. In
addition to any other provisions of this statute, a complaint for criminal
conduct of a federal judge may be brought directly to the Special Federal Grand
Jury upon all the following prerequisites: (1) an affidavit of criminal conduct
has been lodged with the appropriate prosecutorial entity within ninety (90)
days of the commission of the alleged conduct; (2) the prosecutor declines to
prosecute, or one hundred twenty (120) days has passed following the lodging of
such affidavit and prosecution has not commenced; (3) an indictment, if sought,
has not been specifically declined on the merits by a Grand Jury; and (4) the
criminal statute of limitations has not run. Any criminal conviction (including
a plea bargain) under any judicial process shall constitute a strike.
(t) Public Indemnification. No
federal judge complained of, or sued civilly by a complainant pursuant to this
statute shall be defended at public expense or by any elected or appointed
public counsel, nor shall any federal judge be reimbursed from public funds for
any losses sustained under this statute.
(u) Redress. The provisions of
this statute are in addition to other redress that may exist and are not
mutually exclusive.
(v) Preeminence.
Preeminence shall be given to this statute in any case of conflicts with
any other federal statutes, case law, or common law to the contrary. The
foreperson of the Special Federal Grand Jury shall read, or cause to be read,
this statute to the respective Jurors semi-annually during the first week of
business in January and July.
Proposed Bill
written for Congress by Representative Ronald Branson, 11024 Balboa, #214,
Granada Hills, CA. 91344. Branson ran for office and was publicly elected in
’96, and re-elected in ’98 and 2000 as Representative, Office of the
Republican Central Committee for the County of Los Angeles. He currently
represents in the 38th Assembly District of California. Branson has
taken up the cause of cleaning up the courts, both state and federal, and has
gained a national following with twenty-six states actively pursuing his
legislation through state J.A.I.L. Chapters. He is constantly invited on the
radio and to speaking engagements, and is among the most knowledgeable in this
country on the issue of judicial corruption.
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