Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 12:22:22 AM
A Building Block Post. Most Coloradans don't know that there is a Commission on Judicial Discipline, what it does, what rules it operates under or how it came to be. The Supreme Court Page on the commission is abusively uninformative, so we go to the source, Article IV of the Colorado Constitution:
Section 23 (3) (a) There shall be a commission on judicial discipline. It shall consist of: Two judges of district courts and two judges of county courts, each selected by the supreme court; two citizens admitted to practice law in the courts of this state, neither of whom shall be a justice or judge, who shall have practiced in this state for at least ten years and who shall be appointed by the governor, with the consent of the senate; and four citizens, none of whom shall be a justice or judge, active or retired, nor admitted to practice law in the courts of this state, who shall be appointed by the governor, with the consent of the senate.
Note that whoever designed this commission believed in my favorite adage: Lawyers protect judges, judges protect lawyers, and no one protects the public. On a ten person commission, it takes a super majority of six votes to move an issue forward. This commission only has four nonlawyer members. How, exactly, is the public interest to be protected when there is a clash between the public interest and the interest of the legal community?
(b) Each member shall be appointed to a fouryear term; except that onehalf of the initial membership in each category shall be appointed to twoyear terms, for the purpose of staggering terms. Whenever a commission membership prematurely terminates or a member no longer possesses the specific qualifications for the category from which he was selected, his position shall be deemed vacant, and his successor shall be appointed in the same manner as the original appointment for the remainder of his term. A member shall be deemed to have resigned if that member is absent from three consecutive commission meetings without the commission having entered an approval for additional absences upon its minutes. If any member of the commission is disqualified to act in any matter pending before the commission, the commission may appoint a special member to sit on the commission solely for the purpose of deciding that matter.
This last sentence guarantees that the public members will always be outnumbered six to four no matter how many members are disqualified.
There is a paragraph (c) which covers expenses and will be omitted. Members are unpaid.
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For those new to this blog, I write building block posts so that people who wish to can explore issues I am discussing more thoroughly. The appearance of a new building block post means that I eventually intend to use it in some more general post. BB posts can sit dormant for weeks.