Federal Judge to Supreme Court: "STFU". Really?????

Federal Judge to Supreme Court: "STFU".  Really?????


It's a story that only a rule of law nerd would catch and pay attention to.  A sitting U.S. federal judge, angry about recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding Obama Care and the requirement for corporations to provide coverage for, shall we say, "controversial" women's contraceptive services, blogs that the Supreme Court is causing more harm than good and needs to, in this judge's words, "just stfu." 


The underlying cases and controversies aren't what caught my attention.  (You can read the story at http://cnn.it/1ojSYz7)  What troubled me is that like it or not, the United States Supreme Court represents the highest judicial decision-making body in the land, and this lower court judge's public and juvenile reaction is the kind of thing that casts doubt on the legitimacy of one of our three branches of government on which we depend for rule of law in this country. 


The fact is that courts often get decisions wrong.  I spent nine years as a trial lawyer in federal court with a 90% win-loss rate, which is darn good.  But I still spent an uncomfortable amount of time trying to explain to my clients why a seemingly rational judge could irrationally gut my client's legally meritorious case.  Judges have opinions, agendas, and emotions; laws are often ambiguous, contradictory, or so poorly written that no one quite knows what they mean.  Sometimes, the evidence in a case just doesn't come out the way you think it should.  It's an iterative, incredibly imperfect process (Japanese internment, anyone?) but it is a process that reflects the U.S. Constitutional, legal, and political structure.  Disrespect it and you throw the legitimacy of the entire government into question. 


In the end, the only thing that really makes a justice system work is if the people who participate in it -- lawmakers, judges, lawyers, law enforcement officials, and litigants -- believe that it is legitimate and worth resorting to.  Otherwise, you have Somalia, or Syria, or Russia -- places where there is little confidence that anyone in the government is willing or able to do the right thing.  The legitimacy of the judicial system is more important than the legitimacy of an individual decision, because it's the system that enables enforceability.    


This federal judge, the stfu guy, knows that very well.  His own canon of judicial ethics mandates that he keep his opinions to himself in order to protect the legitimacy of the higher courts' decisions, which he will now be bound to apply.  For whatever reason, however, he's decided that he is now above the rules.   It's wrong and it's dangerous, and frankly, this particular judge needs to stfu.