Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/26/judge-rodney-gilstrap-2.html
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The Honorable(
) Judge Gilstrap will be viewed by historians (I hope) as peak idiocy and corruption in the era of venue shopping.
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I am absolutely dumbstruck that the FBI hasn’t had tabs on Gilstrap; there’s no possible way that he’s not on the take, and that really should have come to light by now.
Everything I’ve seen suggests that Gilstrap is too dumb to effectively hide that much money changing hands. That means either nobody’s looking, or that his price is so pathetically low that it’s hard to find enough to nail him on. Mindblowing.
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Eventually the law will admit that cyberspace is a place and we’ll end up with some kind of court like his to handle cases that have no agreed physical “place”.
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Is it just me, or are all the best official clap-backs a word-by-word refutation of the original ridiculous argument?
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So Gilstrap is who Fox is refering to when they howl about activist judges, right? Oh…no? really? weird…
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Or he simply gets paid well enough for his job, so makes rulings that keep his court packed with “work” that keeps those around him happy (and employed). The only reason judges usually loose re-election is if they don’t have the support of their party and local court (staff, lawyers, etc). It wouldn’t surprise me if there were enough lawyers who use his court registered to vote in his region to affect the outcome of elections; judges can win with double digit votes, or even run unopposed.
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Careful, that’s what people were saying about the George W. Bush administration until very recently.
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Judge Jockstrap.
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I mean, it’s possible, but come on. That’s an incredible amount of money changing hands due to their district keeping the system structured in a certain way that attracts business.
Even if they just “fell into” it, a lot of people in positions of influence are going to get greedy very quickly, because that has never not happened in the history of ever.
If you scratch the surface, you’re going to see a lot of legislators’ and judges’ kids and family getting sweet, do-nothing jobs for these companies, lots of little (and big) gifts, luncheons, galas, vacations (ahem, sorry, “conferences”) and so on paid for by the beneficiaries of these systems.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a few investigative reports from a few years back that found some of this stuff when they were barely even trying, just reporting on what was right there in their face. And it’s virtually guaranteed that if there smoke… Well, you know the rest.
So to reiterate, where’s the FBI? I feel like there’s so many red flags that it’d give a bull a seizure, and they don’t seem to be interested. Maybe because it involves the judiciary, and they don’t want to step on those toes as a professional courtesy?
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federal judges are appointed.
this one was appointed by Barack Obama.
Marshall’s rocket docket was invented by T John Ward, appointed by Bill Clinton…
The Judges in this appeal were LOURIE (Bush the older), REYNA (Obama), and STOLL (Obama),
two out three ain’t bad…
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I don’t doubt any of what you say is likely.
I’m saying its so widespread that it may not be so outstanding (in scope or outlandishness) as to have attracted attention (or at least not the sort which, as you say, steps on toes).
I also hadn’t realized this was not an elected position. But again, that would mean a fair network of support just to get placed in the job.
But not now, with the current set of laws we actually use at present.
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It’s a major part of the local economy. Or was.
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Right, I said “eventually”. I think it’s inevitable. And me being the counter-counter-culture rebel that I am, I’m going to paint Judge Rodney Gilstrap as some kind of visionary ahead of his time. 
“Sarcasm-oozing language lesson”? I guess you have to be a native speaker of Legalese to see it.
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When a court feels compelled to hand down an official ruling that has to point out the nouns and the adjectives modifying them in order for the target to finally get it… well, that’s sarcasm, and the type that carries more than a twinge of annoyance.
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It’s like those little shithole towns whose economies are supported primarily by setting up a speed trap on the nearest actually traveled road.
Only vastly more damaging.
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Busy hunting down the reds, same as always.
