The Mystery of Judical License Plates

On another front, my favorite Commission this side of the Commission on Superhuman Activities, i.e. Judicial Conduct, finally answered the burning question of whether displaying judicial license plates violates the New York Rules Governing Judicial Conduct. After 9 months of study, in a spiffy color 65 page report, the answer is, “No.” That’s quite a relief to me, but it begs the question, “Don’t these people have anything better to do?” Obviously not, as the report contained a concurring opinion and a wonderful, silly 11 page dissenting statement by Richard D. Emery. Remember him? He’s the guy who dissented and voted to remove from office one of our Albany County Family Court Judges when the Commission felt that a mere censure was in order. He was appointed for a second term in 2012 by then Senate Minority Leader John Sampson. Yes, that John Sampson, as in United States v. Sampson. In any event, Member Emery adjectivized H.T. Webster’s poor Caspar Milquetoast into calling this a “milquetoast Report” that ducks the issue. To his view, such license plates are completely improper, allowing judges, family and friends “to flaunt their judicial status wherever they go.” Say what? He calls the decision a “schizophrenic message inevitably lead[ing] to bizarre scenarios involving special treatment being afforded and accepted by judges.” He lost me on that one, but as I have written the Commission is no stranger to bizarre scenarios in the past, albeit self-imposed. And besides, I thought judges were entitled to special treatment, like respect and honor for serving the public and our system. Silly me. As for the Commission, if this is the nature of their mission on Earth, I believe it might better reflect on whether wearing black robes is improper as it is an aristocratic vestige of killing ermines in 17th Century England so that due deference could be the made to the death of Queen Mary II in 1694. I wonder what PETA thinks of that?

Judicial Stress and a New Chief Judge

“Judge Abdus-Salaam is the finest candidate we have seen in my years in office.” Sen. Neil Breslin, May 6, 2013
Really? Let’s see, that puts her ahead of her predecessor Judge Theodore Jones, retired Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick and former Chief Judge Judith Kaye (both reconfirmed in 2007), our own Victoria Graffeo, current Chief Judge Jonathan Lippmann and every other current judge on the Court of Appeals. High praise indeed.
Juanita Bing Newton is a Court of Claims judge, but we know her as the Dean of the New York State Judicial Institute in White Plains. Said Institute celebrates its 10th anniversary this month and is a self-proclaimed “forum for judicial scholarship.” For 2010-2011, it paid the Dormitory Authority $1 million for the privilege of using a 30,000 square foot state of the art facility with its 160 seat auditorium and “multi-use lecture hall.” Nice. Section 219-a of the Judiciary Law allows the Chief Administrator of the Courts to enter into bonds up to $16.5 million with, well, anyone, for the construction and maintenance of the Judicial Training Institute. The state debt on this baby is a tad over $7.8 million of 2013-2014. In addition there is a yearly expense of over $1.6 million to keep body and soul together. Judge Newton recently sat down with the New York Law Journal for a nice chat. It was somewhat of a surprise to me that the faculty at the Institute includes psychiatrists. Why? To quote Judge Newton, one of the three most important characteristics of a new judge is, “judges must understand the importance of judicial wellness. Judges must be mindful of stresses of the position and their potential impact, and make every effort to take care of themselves…this year we offered a course specifically designed to address judicial stress and educate judges on techniques to reduce stress. We also offered information about specific confidential programs that are available to assist judges.” I’m happy to know that, but are judges uniquely stressed in the operation of their duties? Do we really have to spend taxpayer dollars on psychiatrists to teach them how to reduce stress? After all, aren’t their jokes instantaneously funnier once elected? In 1994 a National Judges Health Stress Questionnaire was developed to find the highest stressors for judges. Counsel being disrespectful to the judge won the award. But it hardly found that this was a particularly high stress job. A 2011 study of Massachusetts judges found that judges were quite satisfied with their jobs, but would be more satisfied if they were paid more. I could have told them that. The studies of the highest stressed professions in the United States never list judges of course, but divorce lawyers do make the top 10 consistently. Just ask Billshrink, where for 2013 we are number two, just South of inner city police officers and just North of bomb squad officers. But who’s counting? A 2013 CareerCast analysis found judges ranking 71 out of 200 jobs from best to worst, having a very low 20% on the stress scale. Where did attorneys rank? 117, thank you very much, just ahead of Ironworkers, but we have a stress ranking of 36% and we earn less than the average judge too. I’m guessing the stress ranking of a divorce attorney is slightly higher.
What a wonderful world.

“A Pilot Study of Job Satisfaction of Massachusetts Judges”, Journal of Psychiatry and Law, Spring 2011. pages 321-337.
http://www.billshrink.com/blog/8642/12-of-the-most-stressful-jobs-in-america/
http://www.careercast.com/content/top-200-jobs-2013-61-80