Via TalkLeft: The Politics Of Crime, a pointer to an inspiring judicial decision to dismiss a criminal case in light of systematic long-running proprietorial misconduct. (I have not followed the case, so I'm taking the judge's decision at face value. For what it's worth, Judge Carney was appointed by George W. Bush in 2003, so he's unlikely to be a flaming liberal.)
It's increasingly clear that something very very bad happened to the US Justice system during the Bush administration. We've known about the guys in DC for some time, but it's gradually becoming clearer just how much it also happened in the hinterland. To its discredit, the Obama administration has been too slow about cleaning up the distributed rot.
As of this writing, a significant minority of the US Attorney positions remain in the hands of Bush holdover appointees:. A few do deserve to keep their jobs; for the rest it is long past time to go.
In this particular case, though, the man at the top is gone: In the Central District of California, the holdover resigned Sept. 1; no replacement has yet been named, much less confirmed, and the office is run by an Acting US Attorney. New leadership is needed; then we can see if that's enough or if we need further housecleaning.
(For a local example of a similar problem with proprietorial ethics, see this.)
I am celebrating the holiday season in the traditional manner for legal academics: grading exams.
