Last month Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia blistered Mueller prosecutors on a motion to dismiss filed by Paul Manafort's lawyers. Ellis' comments were shocking, grounds for recusal. Yet today, in a 32-page opinion he ruled for Mueller's team and denied the motion to dismiss.
I had never read comments by a judge, much less a federal judge, as biased as were Ellis' but I have occasionally seen things like it on a smaller scale. Sometimes a judge, for reasons known only to the judge and his or her psychiatrist if any, will deliver remarks or direct questions that are a "punch kiss" and then rule in your favor. More common actually is, I guess I'll call it the "kiss punch," a judge who compliments your forensic acumen and mastery of the law and then rules against you. I can understand that a little more: a judge is supposed to be respectful, most want to be known as possessing a good "judicial temperment" but either way it throws mixed signals to the lawyer. Damning by faint praise is...Just rule, wouldja? Damning by faint praise is not comforting. Ruling for you after excorciating everything but your birth at oral argument does not erase the doubt: "Can I get a fair trial from this judge?" As I said, I don't know what it is, but sometimes they do it. Never like this though. Would not have mistaken that punch for a kiss in a million years.
I had never read comments by a judge, much less a federal judge, as biased as were Ellis' but I have occasionally seen things like it on a smaller scale. Sometimes a judge, for reasons known only to the judge and his or her psychiatrist if any, will deliver remarks or direct questions that are a "punch kiss" and then rule in your favor. More common actually is, I guess I'll call it the "kiss punch," a judge who compliments your forensic acumen and mastery of the law and then rules against you. I can understand that a little more: a judge is supposed to be respectful, most want to be known as possessing a good "judicial temperment" but either way it throws mixed signals to the lawyer. Damning by faint praise is...Just rule, wouldja? Damning by faint praise is not comforting. Ruling for you after excorciating everything but your birth at oral argument does not erase the doubt: "Can I get a fair trial from this judge?" As I said, I don't know what it is, but sometimes they do it. Never like this though. Would not have mistaken that punch for a kiss in a million years.
