A federal court issued a one-year suspension to a Louisiana attorney who disrespected a magistrate's law clerk. The attorney snapped at the annoying clerk, magistrate's delegate for a post-hearing telephone inquiry about his absence. The clerk had baited him with carping rhetorical questions and condescending repetition of his name, irritating the tired attorney. Here's a taste of his curtness according to the appellate opinion, a quick 10-page read at http://tinyurl.com/cujt29:
Ms. Blancke told Mr. Moity that there was no reason to get upset, that this was a professional phone call to assess why he had not returned the court’s phone calls and why he’d failed to appear at a court-ordered conference for the purpose of the court’s assessment of sanctions. At some point, Mr. Moity cut Ms. Blancke off in mid-sentence, yelling “Stop saying ‘Mr. Moity.’ You’ve said my name about 5 times, I know my name!”
The 5th Circuit’s denial of Moity’s appeal concluded:
Moity further argues that disbarment was an inappropriately severe punishment for his “curt conversation,” as he calls it. The conversation reported by the magistrate judge’s law clerk displayed severe disrespect to the court by the anger and harsh tone shown to a representative of the magistrate judge. In re Moity, No. 08-30826 (5th Cir. April 7, 2009) (Smith, Stewart and Southwick) (per curiam; unpublished).
Other alleged ethics infractions aggravated the offenses charged against R. Michael Moity Jr. The 5th Circuit held he testified dishonestly at the contempt hearing, but the facts don't clearly and convincingly prove Moity intended deceit. Moity’s brief accused the District Court of misconduct by discussing the case ex parte with another judge who had held Moity in contempt, accusations for which the District Court charged him with impugning two judges' integrity. Even the 5th Circuit found this charge unswallowable yet neither affirmed nor reversed it.
Abuse of disciplinary authority so gross it disturbs even the State Bar Establishment (see, for example, http://tinyurl.com/cvrbaa) can reveal State Bar oppression's intensifiers. The Western District of Louisiana disciplines attorneys using unique procedures letting any judge initiate and decide attorney discipline. Instituting practices magnifying complaining-judges' influence performs an experiment relevant to other jurisdictions, where judges' complaints start many disciplinary proceedings. The California State Bar, by rule, must investigate a judge's complaint, and the State Bar, by habit, defers to the complaining judge on the ultimate question, even if the complaint apparently arose out of a personality clash or a zealous attorney's warranted resistance. The Richard I. Fine case, notably, involves complaints by judicial officers, such as Judge Yaffe and Commissioner Mitchell, both reputed vindictive and unable to admit error. The State Bar’s readiness to prosecute on a judge’s complaint expresses not only its opportunism and authoritarianism but also a strain of its core pathology: finding ethical culpability for impropriety’s appearance, as visited by a judge accusing an attorney of misconduct.
The 5th Circuit should publish a legal outcome so novel. The courts — wanting to render agreeable decisions without being held to principles — undemocratically decline to publish weak opinions that would make new law. The opinion dodges whether alleging judicial misconduct constitutes a disciplinable offense: subtracting one third of the charges should reduce the discipline's severity. The 5th Circuit, affirming the entire aggravation without deciding part of its justification, didn't resolve the presented controversy.
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