“US judges advised to restrict clerks from seeking political jobs” —

• “Federal judges should restrict their law clerks from seeking employment with political organizations while they are still working for the court system to avoid the risk of compromising the judiciary’s independence, according to new ethical guidance.”
• “The U.S. Judicial Conference’s Committee on Codes of Conduct issued the guidance on Thursday in an election-year update to an advisory opinion on what types of political activities are permissible or prohibited by judicial employees.”
• “The code of conduct for judges already advised them to refrain from political activities, and employees were prohibited under prior guidance from taking part in various activities including belonging to partisan political organizations.”
• The new guidance goes a step further by advising judges to restrict their clerks from seeking post-clerkship jobs with political parties, partisan groups or organizations focused on advocating against candidates or parties in elections.”
• “The revised ethical opinion came as the judiciary has been weighing whether to issue new guidance on the ethical duties judges themselves have in the hiring of law clerks.”

“Fla. Judge Faces DQ Bid Over ‘Hostility’ In Ex-Law Prof’s Case” —

• “A former law professor at Florida A&M University wants the federal judge assigned to her retaliation lawsuit against the university to recuse himself, saying he has shown a ‘pattern of hostility’ toward her in multiple court orders, according to a motion filed Tuesday.”
• “Plaintiff Jennifer Smith argued that U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron’s orders have created an appearance of bias that would cause anyone to question his impartiality.”
• “‘Specifically, the Court has used inflammatory adjectives and fussbudget phrases consistently in its orders, thereby demonstrating a difficulty, in fact, an inability, of the judge to put ‘his previous views and findings aside,” Smith argued.”
• “Smith is embroiled in a retaliation lawsuit against her former university and argued that Florida A&M paid her almost $25,000 less than a male coworker for performing similar duties when Smith had a decade more of legal experience than he did, according to her complaint.”
• “In her motion Tuesday, Smith pointed to a number of incidents that call for Judge Byron to recuse himself, including that he ‘chided’ her for essentially hoping to require the university to keep her on the payroll until the litigation has concluded despite her alleged inability to do her job. Smith said she told the court that she took her teaching position at a significant pay cut.”
• “Smith also said the court intentionally misrepresented the facts of the case and manufactured its own justification for Smith’s firing independent of the university’s actions.”
• “‘The Court asserted: ‘While Plaintiff contests the student’s version of the encounter leading to her termination, the student’s account — corroborated by five witnesses — resulted in FAMU’s decision to terminate Plaintiff for improper conduct.’ This statement is patently false and unsupported by the record,’ Smith said.”
• “‘While adverse rulings alone do not generally warrant recusal, the tone and language used in these orders suggest a level of hostility that would cause any reasonable observer to question whether the judge can rule impartially in this case,’ Smith said.”

“Ed Burke’s law firm once worked for family of judge who sentenced him to prison” —

• “The family of the judge who sentenced former Ald. Edward M. Burke to two years in prison for strong-arming developers to retain his law firm once hired Burke’s firm to help their company fight City Hall and hold onto a lucrative city deal, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.”
• “Land and Lakes Co., a northwest suburban business owned by the family of Chief U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, had filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago in 1994. It was seeking to stop the city from shutting down its landfill on the Southeast Side for violating a moratorium on expanding or opening new landfills that Burke had helped pass.”
• “As part of the company’s clout-heavy legal team, it hired Burke’s firm, Klafter & Burke, court records show.”
  “There’s no record that the longtime powerhouse Chicago City Council member himself was involved in the civil case.”
• “But court records show his wife, now-retired Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, was one of the landfill owners’ lawyers. At the time, she was an attorney in private practice, specializing in child-welfare matters.”
• “Responding through an intermediary, Kendall said she had been unaware until contacted by the Sun-Times that her family had hired Burke’s firm as part of the legal team in their court battle with City Hall in the mid-1990s.”
• “The judge — a former federal prosecutor who was appointed to the judiciary in 2006 and recently was elevated to the post of chief judge — said she has no reason to believe that her family’s hiring of Burke’s law firm would have posed a conflict of interest for which she would have needed to recuse herself from hearing Burke’s corruption case.”
• “But, in response to questions from the Sun-Times, she said she sought an opinion from the general counsel for the Administrative Office of the United States Courts — the administrative arm of the federal court system. She said the opinion she received this month, more than two months after sentencing Burke, was that she would not have needed to step aside from the case.”
• “‘Upon receipt of your inquiry, and out of an abundance of caution, Chief Judge Kendall contacted the Office of General Counsel at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and confirmed with the counsel overseeing the Codes of Conduct Committee that she does not, and did not, have an obligation to recuse from the case because there was no conflict (even if she had been aware, which she was not).'”
• “Bruton’s letter also said Kendall ‘has never been employed by Land & Lakes Company, and she is not a director. Like many children, Chief Judge Kendall chose to pursue an entirely separate career path from her parents. Nevertheless, ever since becoming a Judge, Chief Judge Kendall has listed her parents’ businesses on her recusal list.'”