Courts

Ethics Panel Decides It's No Big Deal If Judge Uses Racial Slur About Defendants Appearing In His Courtroom

This really should be a bigger deal.

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You’d think a judge calling defendants a racial slur would be cause for action by an ethics panel. But, well, Texas.

According to reporting by the Houston Chronicle, Judge Allen Amos was hearing cases as part of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star cracking down, via state law, on illegal border crossings. The defense lawyer who filed the complaint, Emily Miller, says that Judge Amos referred to the defendants as not “your regular wetbacks.” Ummm, excuse me?

“They have phones and clothes and all kinds of other things,” the then-80-year-old Amos told Miller, as she recounted in her complaint. “I took that to mean that he believes the defendants are affluent and not really indigent.”

But the state Commission on Judicial Conduct refused to take action against the judge for his behavior, saying the use of the slur was “not necessarily appropriate” but “did not rise to the level of sanctionable misconduct.” The Commission wrote they “made the judge aware of your concerns,” and “[t]he commission remains confident that the conduct will not occur in the future.”

Which… wow. And Miller feels similarly:

“I’m stunned,” said Emily Miller, the defense attorney who filed the complaint. “It’s 2023, not 1953. If using a racial slur against a litigant is not sanctionable, then I don’t really know what is.”

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Others are similarly outraged:

Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, called the decision “inexplicable.” If the comment was inappropriate, Saenz said, it should have also been punishable.

“We’re disappointed and concerned that the disciplinary system is not adequately protecting against bias in judging,” Saenz said. “It suggests a very weak judicial discipline system, so weak as to undermine public faith in the judicial process.”

Although it isn’t clear why, mercifully Amos no longer hears cases related to Operation Lone Star.

Miller will be asking the Commission to reconsider their decision.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.

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