Reprimand For Attacks On Court Legitimacy

Several months of decisions have recently been posted on the web page of the Arizona Presiding Disciplinary Judge.

One interesting matter led to a reprimand and probation for one year for assertions of systemic racial injustice in criminal cases.

The discipline was imposed based on a conditional admission of misconduct. 

In several cases, the attorney asserted in pleadings that the court was illegitimate, had been complicit in enforcing racial policies of the prosecutor’s office for decades. used “white privilege” jury selection systems, that the “Judicial Branch of Arizona is a law and order cabal,” and that the Superior Court lacked legitimacy. 

Each pleading commenced with a quote from George Orwell’s 1984 and cited a recently-released ACLU report on the Maricopa County justice system. 

The attorney explained that his racial injustice concerns were heightened by the death of George Floyd and the release of the ACLU report. (Mike Frisch)