Topic: Leaders
Current Event: #2
Title: Judge unlikely to face removal for racist message about Obama
Author: Bill Mears and Moni Basu
Publication: CNN
Date: 3/2/2012
Length: 817 words
Judge Richard Cubell, federal chief justice of the 9th circuit court, forwarded an email insulting Obama saying "Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching, I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine." The original message was, ""A little boy said to his mother, 'Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?' His mother replied, 'Don't even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!'" Advocacy groups like Common Cause called for his resignation. Unfortunately, there isn't really a system to discipline judges unless they commit a crime. Therefore, the judge's only consequence is embarrassment by the media. However, the Judge Cubell did apologize profusely and accepted responsibility. He claimed he is not racist and was just doing it because of political disagreement with the President. The judge did break a set of ethical standards set by the Department of justice saying "to act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary."
The quick timing and negative response from the public shows that the media is truly what keeps our politicians in check. However, the government should not depend on the media to expose bad leadership and corruptness in the government. A tighter systems of checks and balances needs to be in place to make sure that these men of power do not abuse it.
I think that he should face a consequence for his actions, as a leader in the government, we cannot tolerate him being disrespectful and racist if we want to eliminate racism. People in government are looked up to by the people, and must lead by example. However, I think a resignation is too extreme for this case, instead I believe he should participate in some community service to win back respect from people.
The article discusses what should be the fate of a judge who disrespected his office by forwarding a racist email. He was not given any sort of punishment, and was would not have been dissuaded from repeating his actions, if it weren't for the media. The media took his email, and placed it in the public view for everyone to see. He in fact was reprimanded due to his lack of impartiality, but that is not enough. Part of being a judge is the requirement to remain impartial to politics, he violated that clause and as such should have been punished in one way or another. I agree with the author that community service would be a fitting punishment.
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ReplyDeleteSameeha R.
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Although I agree that a resignation may be too harsh, Judge Cubell should definitely face some consequences for forwarding an insulting email like this. Just because the judge had a "political disagreement" with President Obama doesn't mean it is okay to personally insult the president like this. Like you mentioned, a judge of all people is expected to be fair and act with the utmost integrity at all times. Forwarding a racist email like this offending President Obama is totally unacceptable, especially because judges are supposed to be impartial. I do agree that the judge must participate in some community service to win back respect from the citizens and from the president himself.
As shown in the article, there is a complete lack of punishment for judges who show impartiality. This judge who openly expressed his racist views was completely left unpunished for his unprofessionalism. The only thing that would possibly dissuade him from acting the same way in the future was his harsh reprimand by the media and by the general public. How can we trust such a person to be in such a position of decisional power when he has openly expressed his bigotry views? His apology was obviously an attempt to gain back some of his public image and can not be taken seriously.
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