Posted by Ilya Somin:
Federal District Judge Samuel B. Kent Pleads Guilty to Charges of Obstruction
of Justice and Resigns from the Bench:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_02_22-2009_02_28.shtml#1235881994
I missed this when it happened a few days ago. But it's worth noting
that [1]Texas federal district Judge Samuel B. Kent pleaded guilty to
charges of obstruction of justice last week, and is resigning from the
bench as part of the plea deal:
No means no � even if you are a federal judge with a lifetime
appointment and a larger-than-life ego.
That is but one lesson in the ugly and utterly avoidable case of
United States of America v. Samuel B. Kent. On Monday, Kent, a U.S.
district judge since 1990, pleaded guilty to lying to investigators
about sexually abusing his secretary. In exchange, federal
prosecutors dropped five sex-crime charges alleging he groped two
women. Kent could have faced up to life in prison if convicted of
all charges, but prosecutors say they will not seek more than three
years in prison for Kent, who is 59...
As part of his plea deal, Kent has agreed to retire immediately
from the bench, likely avoiding impeachment by Congress, the
constitutionally prescribed method for unseating a federal judge.
Eugene Volokh and I discussed the Kent case in [2]a series of posts in
2007 and 2008. At the time, I took a certain amount of flak for
[3]urging that Congress investigate the possibility of of impeaching
Kent. Kent's forced resignation makes the impeachment issue moot, of
course. But it does suggest that there was good reason to consider the
possibility until Kent finally agreed to resign on his own. As I
pointed out in [4]my first post on the subject, the sexual harrassment
that caused Kent's downfall was the latest in a long series of
ethically dubious actions by the judge. The federal judiciary will be
the better for his absence.
References
1. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/6277300.html
2. http://volokh.com/posts/chain_1219983137.shtml
3. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_09_30-2007_10_06.shtml#1191044678
4. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_09_30-2007_10_06.shtml#1191044678
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