Judicial Conduct Quotes
The Supreme court ruled that monetary campaign contributions were a form of political speech and as such could not be limited. The result was that the richest people and the largest corporations could pay any politician any amount of money if the called it a campaign contribution. Under the Congressional rules at the time there were ways that the so called campaign contributions could be used for the legislator’s personal and family benefit and when members of Congress retired there were ways that they could take their “unspent” campaign funds with them for personal use. The resultant system was what Senator McCain called “bribery”, which before the Supreme Court rendered this decision was a felony. That which had been unethical and criminal became legal.
The Regius Poem, often referred to as The Halliwell Manuscript, c.1390, is the oldest Englsh langiage document of Freemasonry, It was a long poem with a then classic rhyming scheme. It articulated 15 moral precepts and even more "principles" of the English Masons at the time, which was not vastly different from Masons today.
There are many who believe that this principle should operate today in America. We do not allow civil recovery from an errant or unscrupulous judge as there could be a very inhibiting factor on the willingness to serve. However the Visigoths, weighted down with religious and secular superstition still placed fairness as one of the most important elements of their legal system. This is the most formalized and sophisticated compendium of laws of the so-called “barbaric peoples” of Europe. The compilation was in many ways a documentation of the traditional laws of the Visigoths that had evolved over hundreds of years.
When Cardozo was appointed to the Supreme Court, there was much anti Semitism in America and few Jews were made judges or magistrates. He was reviewing a case where the magistrate had been guilty of misconduct. The magistrate also happened to be Jewish. Cardozo thought that Jewish judges in particular should always maintain very high standards. This has been a common reaction of minorities who reach high level positions. They hold their fellow minority members to a higher standard so as to prove that the prejudice was undeserved. Of course there are good and bad in every group, but these first ethnic pioneers feel like they are carrying the burden for their entire minority group.
