Senator Santiago, Her Bad Mouth and Her Bad Law! « Viewpoint Neutral

Senator Santiago, Her Bad Mouth and Her Bad Law! « Viewpoint Neutral

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Senator Santiago, Her Bad Mouth and Her Bad Law!
2 Votes
Senator Miriam Santiago is intellectually dishonest, and a bad mouth too. But she is a very lucky damsel – she can spew the most blatant legal rubbish on the floor of the Senate and afterwards savors her ignorant bliss in her seat massaging her vanity thinking perhaps that among the Senators assembled, she was the only one possessed with superior legal skill.

Santiago does not know that there is Section 6 of the Code of Judicial Conduct that requires a judge to maintain order and decorum in all proceedings before the court and be patient, dignified and courteous in relation to litigants, witnesses, lawyers and others with whom the judge deals in an official capacity.

Often, Ms. Santiago’s tantrums on the floor and her acerbic language hurled at the prosecutors were way out of line. She could be impeached for her behavior the way U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase was impeached in 1805 for his judicial arrogance; tyrannical behavior and for interference with the defense in cases heard in his court.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote that Chase was imperious and high-handed in his dealings with lawyers, not an appealing trait in a judge.”

And like Chase, Santiago could be acquitted too by the Senate, because it was hard to get the superior majority votes of 2/3. But majority of the Senators, 19, voted to remove Chase and 15 voted against his removal, it was 4 senators short of the magic 2/3 votes, but acquittal would not detract from the fact that as in Chase’s case, Santiago’s behaviour as a judge in the impeachment court was also reprehensible.

Par. 4 of one of the articles of impeachment against the U.S. jurist said:

“Chase had repeatedly interrupted and harassed defense counsel in the presentation of their case.”

Because Miriam is pro-Corona, she has no problem harassing the prosecution and not the defense.

The Articles of Impeachment also charged that Chase had at times ridiculed defense counsel, and had interrupted them in the presentation of their case. Chase did on occasion make fun of defense counsel, and “play to the galleries.” Colonel John Taylor, who was not allowed to testify at the Callender trial, got in his inning when he was called as a witness at the impeachment trial before the Senate. On cross-examination by Robert Goodloe Harper, the following colloquy:

Q. – You have said, you considered the interruptions of the court as highly calculated to abash the counsel; did you mean thereby to give your opinion that they were so intended, or that such was their tendency?

A. – I thought they were so intended, and they had their full effect. They were followed by a great deal of mirth in the audience. The audience laughed, but the counsel never laughed at all.”

You can see Miriam in Samuel Chase.

Justice Rehnquist admonishes:

“No one unfamiliar with the courtroom practice of law can fully realize the tremendous advantage that a judge has over the lawyers who appear before him and the corresponding obligations upon the judge to refrain from ridiculing or making light of the lawyers. But Samuel Chase was either unaware of any such obligation or unwilling to acknowledge it. (Grand Inquests, William Rehnquist, p. 88).

Rehnquist quoted Raoul Berger who in 1973 published Impeachment: The Constitutional Problem, in which he took the position that the Senate should have convicted Chase and removed him from office. Berger focused principally on the charges based on Chase’s conduct in the Callender trial, and to a lesser degree on his conduct of the Fries trial. He concluded that the evidence showed his “evident predisposition to play the hanging judge” and his “oppressive misuse of power.” Berger contends that Chase’s statements preliminary to the trial, his exclusion of John Taylor’s testimony, x x x and his harassment of defense counsel were sufficiently egregious to justify conviction.”

“We can see Chase in Miriam Santiago.

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