How Appealing



Sunday, May 7, 2006

“Complaint Against Judge Has Broader Ramifications; Judicial panel says it lacks power to sanction L.A. jurist; Bill would create inspector general”: Today in The Los Angeles Times, Henry Weinstein has an article that begins, “A long-running controversy involving a misconduct complaint against veteran Los Angeles federal Judge Manuel L. Real has reached the nation’s capital, where it could influence legislation proposed by conservatives seeking to exert greater oversight of the federal judiciary. Real seized control from another judge of a bankruptcy involving a woman whose probation he was overseeing, permitting Deborah M. Canter to live rent-free for three years in a Highland Avenue house and costing her creditors $35,000 in rent and thousands more in legal costs, according to court documents. A sharply divided national federal judicial discipline committee ruled 3 to 2 in late April that it had no power to sanction Real, 81, because the chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals failed to properly investigate the complaint.”

If anyone can point to me where last month’s ruling of the “sharply divided national federal judicial discipline committee” is available online so that I can link to it, or if anyone can send an electronic copy of that ruling to me so that I can post it online, I will be most appreciative.

The ruling of the Judicial Council of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in this matter from September 2005 is available online at this link. And my earlier coverage of that ruling appears here, here, and here.

Posted at 9:05 AM by Howard Bashman