Judges are real people too - and have to act llke it
. The stories were probably eye opening for many people. Most of the public holds judges in high esteem. Sometimes that is warranted, and sometimes it is not.
You would hope judges would honor their position, and fulfill the obligations they have been granted. They are real people though, and just because the title of judge has bestowed doesn't mean their character changes. They are who they were before they came to bench, and their isn't some magical transformation that occurs when they are sworn in.
We have been fortunate in McLennan County to have good judges. I have been all over the State, and seen firsthand how some judges are consumed with their power. They treat everyone who comes before them with contempt - especially criminal defendants. I know its easy to become jaded when every day people are paraded before you who have engaged in some despicable behavior. Good judges are able to keep the proper perspective; they know they are dealing with human beings and fellow citizens. They recognize that people are not always what they do; sometimes their behavior is an aberration, and there are reasons behind it. No one wants to be judged on the worst thing they have ever done, and good judges remember that. Good judges also remember that they were once lawyers too. We have to deal with other lawyers, clients, families, and judges. They recognize the world does not revolve around them, are able to empathize with those appearing before them.
One of things Judge Gray was admonished for was the tone of his opinion. There is no doubt he has written a lot of dissents, and that is right. No judge can be admonished for his decisions, and the admonishment in this case was not based on the fact he dissented. Instead, it was based on the personal attacks in those dissents. It is not unusual to see an personal address in an opinion, but attacks are a different matter. Many of those were accompanied by scripture quotes, which I have a problem with. I take my faith seriously, and spend a lot of time working on it. Unfortunately, some use faith to justify their conduct, and attack others. I believe that is decidely un-Christian, and is one of the reasons people hold Christians in such low regard. It always surprises me that people use scripture most often to condemn. Seldom do they note that we will be judged by how we treat the least among us.
Appellate court judges occupy a different position. They don't have to deal with clients, and rarely deal with lawyers. The get to sit in their offices, and read about what happened at trial. They were all lawyers before, and some remember what it was like to actually try a case; on the other hand, some forget too easily. They exercise a tremendous amount of power, which sometimes goes to their head. Judges are not immune from the adage "absolute power corrupts absolutely". We have also been fortunate in McLennan County to have excellent appellate court judges, which makes the current situation more unusual.
The moral of this incident is that judges are real people, and are expected to act like. No matter who they are dealing with, they should treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve as children of God. For those who Christian, they should remember that their time to judge is limited; in the end they will be judged like everyone else. At that point the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. In more secular terms, they only need to treat others as they would want to be treated.
