Late last summer, lawmakers and Gov. Pat McCrory agreed to shroud in secrecy the state’s process for disciplining judges.
The result is apparent today at the online space where notices of pending judicial discipline were traditionally posted for the public to see. Now, that Web page is blank except for a disclaimer in bold: “All proceedings for judicial discipline are confidential,” it says, citing legislation McCrory signed into law on Aug. 23.
Anyone interested in judicial discipline who had clicked on that page in, say, September 2011 would have seen pending cases against two judges and their answers to the charges. In 2008, charges were brought against six judges, with the public able to read the allegations and responses from the elected or appointed judges.
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| Before state law changed last year, the public could see charges brought against judges; the judges' responses; and find hearing notices to attend public hearings as with this archive of the commission's webpage from Nov. 2011. The judicial discipline process was an open one. |
For decades, the state’s Judicial Standards Commission has led the work to investigate and recommend discipline of judges when questions arise about their professional conduct. That work, too, was largely conducted in secret until a committee, acting as a sort of grand jury, had determined that there was sufficient evidence against a judge to merit sanction or punishment. Then the charges became public.
A different panel would then conduct a hearing, with any recommendations about punishment beyond a “public reprimand” going to the state Supreme Court. Those hearings were also open to the public.
The commission still plays the role of investigator and conducts hearings about judicial conduct. But the new law keeps it all behind closed doors.
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New NC law shrouds judicial discipline process in secrecy
Get the bums off the bench!
ReplyDeleteAnd who does secrecy protect? Not the victims of the misconduct, but the misconductors themselves.
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