Tyler Ochoa <tochoa[_at_]LAW.WHITTIER.EDU> wrote:
> More fundamentally, you are way out of line here in criticizing a
> federal judge who went out of his way to take seriously an argument
> that most federal judges would have rejected out of hand. You may
> not agree with Judge Kaplan's opinion, but suggesting that he behaved
> unethically is beyond outrageous.
I am not suggesting he behave unethically as a reaction to his opinion. In fact, I first stated my beliefs on this before the ruling came out. I sorry if you think it is taboo to make this claim. I would not make it flippantly - I do hold most judges in high regard. Regardless, I would have recused myself if I were him. I think he made the wrong call on a decision of judical ethics.
There was a motion to recuse. I think it was valid given the facts, which are not in dispute, and given the law. The judge wrote a 49 page motion deny recusal whose reasoning I don't agree with. Should I pretend I do?
The judge represented plaintiff Warner Brothers on several occasions and his parter helped design the DVD antitrust strategy while Kaplan was on staff in the same department. From this, a reasonable person would have doubts about his cozy relationship with the studios. At the very least, you have to admit that the plaintiffs got pretty lucky to get one of their former attorneys.
I also think Kaplan used the trial schedule to give advantage to the plaintiffs. I have never heard of a judge moving a trial date forward by six months in response to a motion to appoint a magistrate because the other side was stalling during discovery.
I didn't like judge Elvfing's opinion in the CA DVD case but I never questioned his ethics. I do question Chief Justice Rehnquist's decision not to recuse himself if the Microsoft case (his son did MS antitrust work). And I certainly question President Clinton's ethics based on his bahaviour. Even you were hinting at the undue influence of campaign contributions affecting Congress.
What's so outrageous, then? Bashing government figures is a national past-time.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Mon Mar 26 2007 - 00:35:41 GMT