House Considers Judge’s Impeachment (Clinton appointee)

The House will take up the impeachment of a Louisiana federal judge accused of seeking and accepting bribes and perjury this Friday, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday.

The judge, G. Thomas Porteous, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, is accused of accepting cash and gifts from lawyers whose cases he presided over in court. He’s also accused of lying about his finances when he filed for personal bankruptcy.

Mr. Porteous could become the eighth federal judge forced out since Judge John Pickering of New Hampshire in 1804. Former Judge Alcee L. Hastings of Florida was one of the last federal judges removed in 1999. He now serves in Congress.

A few things stand out here:
1) I think Alcee Hastings was removed from office in 1989 not 1999. I would suspect a simple typo there.

2) This is a normal way of doing business in both Louisiana and Mississippi. See Dickie Scruggs, Paul Minor, Joey Langston and others. Guess the Feds just do not understand “Southern Just-Us”.

3) Using Hastings as a template, I figure the Honorable G. Thomas Porteous will be a fixture in the House Of mis Representatives for the next 20 years or so. 4) I also find it interesting that the Judicial branch has higher standards than both the Executive and the Legislative.

He was Chief of the Felony Complaint Division in the District Attorney’s Office, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana from 1973 to 1975

He has controversially ruled in several landmark cases against the state, including one 2002 case in which he ruled that the state of Louisiana was illegally using federal money to promote religion in its abstinence-only sex education programs. He ordered the state to stop giving money to individuals or organizations that “convey religious messages or otherwise advance religion” with tax dollars.

Also in 2002, Porteous overturned a federal ban on rave paraphernalia such as glowsticks, pacifiers, and dust masks, originally banned due to the subculture’s ties to recreational drugs such as Ecstasy, after the American Civil Liberties Union successfully claimed the ban to be unconstitutional. He had previously ruled in 1999 against a Louisiana law aimed at banning the late-term abortion procedure known as partial birth abortion in a procedure known as dilation and extraction.

In 2001, Judge Porteous filed for bankruptcy, which led to revelations in the press about his private life, specifically the fact that he was alleged to have had close ties with local bail bond magnate Louis Marcotte III, at the center of a corruption probe, which has more recently led to his being the subject of investigation himself by federal investigators.

The conference determined that Porteous committed perjury by signing false financial disclosures to conceal cash and things of value that he solicited from lawyers appearing before him. He repeatedly committed perjury during his personal bankruptcy case to obtain a discharge of debts “while continuing his lifestyle at the expense of his creditors,” the certificate says.

He also systematically concealed from litigants and the public financial transactions by filing false financial disclosures about his income, gifts, loans and liabilities, the panel found.

Porteous made false representations to gain the extension of a bank loan with an intent to defraud the bank, the conference found.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.