Court of Appeals Lifts the Curtain on Rogue Judge

Former U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull, of Montana, sent emails to personal and professional contacts that showed disdain for blacks, Indians, Hispanics, women, certain religious faiths, liberal political leaders, and some emails contained inappropriate jokes about sexual orientation, the Judicial Council of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found.

 Many of the emails also related to pending issues that could have come before Cebull’s court, such as immigration, gun control, civil rights, health care and environmental issues, the council found in its March 15, 2013, order.
Cebull retired at the end of last March, after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals council, showed him their findings.  Once off the bench, the record was sealed — leaving the public without knowledge of years of very very injudicious behavior.

That prompted Judge Theodore McKee, the chief judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit, to file a petition with the national Judicial Conference’s Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability, asking the committee to review the council’s work and publish the original March 15 order.

Judge McKee argued that the 9th Circuit council’s subsequent rulings inappropriately concealed its original findings.

Good for Judge McKee and good, belatedly, for the council.  It turns out that

…hundreds of other inappropriate messages [were sent] from his federal email account, according to the findings of a judicial review panel released Friday.

SF Gate: Matt Volz/AP

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