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Access online the text of the judicial misconduct complaint that L. Ralph Mecham, former head of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, has filed against Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski

Access online the judicial misconduct complaint that L. Ralph Mecham, former head of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, has filed against Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski: As I first noted in this post last night, Cynthia Cotts of Bloomberg News yesterday had an article headlined "Retired U.S. Court Executive Files Kozinski Complaint."

The Bloomberg article reports that Mecham supplied a copy of his misconduct complaint to Bloomberg. Mecham filed his complaint with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which has been assigned to handle certain judicial misconduct complaints against Chief Judge Kozinski.

The cover page of Mecham's complaint identifies the judges against whom his Complaint of Judicial Misconduct applies as "Chief Judge Alex Kozinski principally but also Judge Mary M. Schroeder and Judge Sidney R. Thomas." Mecham has signed the misconduct complaint under a declaration stating, "I declare under penalty of perjury that the statements made in this complaint are true and correct to the best of my knowledge." The complaint is dated November 21, 2008.

I have posted online Mecham's judicial misconduct complaint, minus exhibits and cover pages, at this link. Rulings on judicial misconduct complaints must be made available to the public, but proceedings on judicial misconduct complaints are usually conducted in a private and confidential manner, although the subject of a judicial misconduct proceeding has the ability to waive confidentiality. And, as is now obvious, the person filing a judicial misconduct complaint has the ability to publicize the initiation of the proceeding and the allegations at issue. You can access the "Rules for Judicial-Conduct and Judicial-Disability Proceedings" at this link.

Full post as published by How Appealing on November 26, 2008 (boomark / email).