“Extending the doctrine of judicial immunity to include civil liability for alleged criminal conduct, as in this case, risks undermining the public’s trust in the judiciary, which I cannot countenance.”
—First Circuit Court of Appeal Judge William Crain, in his dissent in Wednesday’s decision that 4th JDC judges were entitled to “absolute judicial immunity” even though a lawsuit said all five judges were complicit in protecting a court clerk who was said to have destroyed court records.
“Judicial immunity is of the highest order of importance in maintaining an independent judiciary, free of threats or intimidation. But it is a judge-created doctrine policed by judges.”
—More of Judge Crain’s dissent.
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Watch for report by Lee Zurik in coming days in re: Don Vallee’s conflicts as a board member on the Louisiana Housing Corporation, and his appointing authority, Speaker of the House, Taylor Barras’ refusal to take action to remove him.
You seem to consider the judges the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges … and their power [are] the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and are not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves … . When the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity. The exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous enough. I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves. …. — Letter to Mr. Jarvis, Sept, 1820 from Thomas Jefferson