The Commission on Judicial Conduct has become virtually self-driving and unaccountable. The article "Texas judges' misdeeds often kept secret by oversight commission," found in the Austin American-Statesman, only serves to rile me up further. It unravels the truth that this commission, who is in charge of oversight of our state judges, believes that it should never have to allow someone to go through their files to make sure they are functioning properly. Of course, the commission itself would like to defend why it legally can not share the information it has on cases against the judges in our state, but I love how the Statesman points out that "Defense lawyers, those who have filed complaints and even some judges counter that such secrecy raises questions about how the agency is policing some of the state's most powerful public officials." Of course it raises suspicion! It raises even more alarms when you continue reading the article and see that the Commission on Judicial Conduct has even blocked another state agency from being able to audit it. The Statesman shares, "The Sunset Advisory Commission is charged by the Legislature to review the performance of state agencies to determine if taxpayers should continue funding an agency and, if so, what changes might be made to improve its efficiency." However, the Commission on Judicial Conduct refused to allow the Sunset Advisory Commission access to any of their information. They would not allow them to sit in on any hearings or allow them to assess their functions in any other way.
How can one state agency that is charged with oversight refuse to allow another state agency, charged with the same exact role, to oversee it's operations. I can not even see how that could be legal. The Sunset Advisory Commission's main purpose is to see if taxpayer dollars are being spent well, and the Commission on Judicial Conduct is prohibiting them from performing their role completely. The Statesman even mentions that while some judges are getting a slap on a wrist for serious offenses, other judges are getting serious judgements meted out for less serious offenses. The Commission on Judicial Conduct goes on to say that they believe the other agency has no right to conduct a review on their rulings because they are a Judicial body and is not subject to Legislative oversight.
Concerning the behavior of the Commission on Judicial Conduct, Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project said it best, "It says that judges protect their own." That is a very fair assessment. It is clear that just as someone in a courtroom who is being tried before a judge can actually donate money to that judges campaign, this Commission on Judicial Conduct can also be corrupted. I think the only way to fix something like this is to fine tune the legislation that brought about the Sunset Advisory Commission. Something that would say that an advisory commission has every right to assess each and every commission that runs within the boundaries of this state. That would create at least a little oversight into the workings of the Judicial branch and this apparently corrupted commission.
No comments:
Post a Comment