Friday, September 03, 2010

Judicial shenanigans

When the story about Judge Lori Douglas broke earlier this week I probably had a similar reaction to a lot of people. Snickered a little bit, perhaps sent a joking reminder to some lawyer friends reminding them to delete any naked photos they might have of themselves and wonder how this could happen.

But the more I thought about it, the more it kind of pissed me off. Christie Blatchford, as usual, knocked it right out of the park in her column. But there are several things I just want to touch on myself.

First of all, I have no idea how on earth this is her fault. So she allowed some sexually explicit photos to be taken. Last time I checked, she was a consenting adult. How this impacts on her ability to understand and interpret the law is beyond me. Besides, at the rate things are going, if nude pictures on the internet disqualifies you from holding a job, there's going to be a lot of people finding themselves unemployed, especially if you're under 25 years old.

Plus, none of this is her fault. "Oh, she shouldn't have allowed the photos taken." She's a grown adult, it's not illegal and she never apparently had any intentions of allowing them to be made public, so what's the big deal? Also, I'm sorry, I don't see how it impacts her ability to be a judge. So she likes some slightly kinky sex in her private life. Why should people care?

Her husband has a little mental break from reality and posts photos of her online, presumably without her consent or knowledge. Then he carries on a frankly bizarre relationship with a client. Then said client, years after an agreement to keep quiet, decides to come forward for reasons that couldn't hold air, much less water. And because of all this her career suffers. Alexander Chapman is, quite frankly, setting off ten kinds of scumbag alarm bells right now.

Nope, sorry, I'm not going for it. To the best of our knowledge, right now, she didn't do anything wrong, inappropriate or affecting her ability to do her job to the best of her abilities.

So I call shenanigans (and not the kind the judge was up to). I hope she gets reappointed to her post because some pictures taken a decade ago and released without her knowledge shouldn't derail her career.

Last Five
1. House of smoke and mirrors - Matthew Good
2. Sand in my shoes - Dido
3. Tango 'til they're sore (live) - Tom Waits
4. I am vision, I am sound - Bob Mould
5. Rumbolt - Figgy Duff

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