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I’m almost apoplectic! It seems Judith Sheindlin made some $45 million last year.
Supersized paychecks are nothing new these days. It’s the fact that this woman has done so much damage to the public’s understanding of, and faith in, the judicial system that’s making me twitch.
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“The ability to put himself into the shoes of the men and women who appear before him is the heart of being a decent judge.” - Joseph A. Wapner (“The People’s Court”) |
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Judith Sheindlin is also known as “Judge Judy” and she is one of the highest-paid TV personalities in America. That’s right. Each day, she presides over a make-believe TV courtroom, dealing with cases chosen for their odd facts and even odder participants.
The producers pay all the judgments, so no one has anything to lose in this Neverland, and justice is therefore not the issue. Instead, the focus seems to be on how rude, biased, argumentative and arbitrary this once-real-life judge can be under the guise of folksy “no-nonsense” decision making.
It’s exhausting to watch even if you don’t try to keep track of all the ethical rules she breaks with regularity and aplomb. She interrupts. She insults. She ignores. But more upsetting is that people believe her behavior is representative of what real judges do each day, and how real courts function. It is not.
Instead, real judges deal with real people and real cases each day. Our docket is not pre-arranged by production assistants anxious for drama. In an actual courtroom, the drama lies in the fact that almost everyone is nervous and someone will lose, often in a life-altering manner. Real judges actually listen to the evidence and try their best to reach an appropriate decision. Good judges never forget the Talmud’s warning: “When a judge sits in judgment over a fellow man, he should feel as if a sword is pointed at his own heart.”
Sadly, too, real judges cannot resolve both the specific case and its broader social impact within seven minutes of smug pontification between commercial segments. Real judges are not entertainers. Judge Judy is an entertainer.
And I know Ms. Sheindlin is hardly the only retired jurist supplementing their pensions in front of a TV camera, but $45 million a year? Really? Since the entire 2nd Judicial District Court runs on less than half that much, I think that’s simply crazy. Of course, you can “Judge for Yourself.”
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Shifting gears abruptly, President Barack Obama has nominated Kevin Washburn to the post of assistant secretary of the Interior for Indian affairs, the highest post for Native American affairs in the entire federal government. That’s both good and bad news.
Washburn has served as the dean of the UNM School of Law since 2009 and has brought a wonderful energy and great personal integrity to running one of the country’s better law schools as well as the myriad additional duties of the dean such as the Judicial Selection Committee and Judicial Compensation Commission.
Dean Washburn hails from Oklahoma and is a member of the Chickasaw Nation. He first visited UNM’s Law School in 1990 as part of a special program for Native American students interested in a legal career. He returned as dean nearly 20 years later after serving as a federal prosecutor here in Albuquerque, and as a professor of law at both the University of Arizona and the University of Minnesota.
And you rarely see Kevin when he is not smiling.
It has been my personal and professional pleasure to have made his acquaintance over these last few years. This opportunity will take him from New Mexico yet again. That is the bad news. The good news is that the federal government is getting a great leader and a good man. Let’s hope his path leads him back here some day.
Alan M. Malott is a judge of the 2nd Judicial District Court. Before joining the court, he practiced law throughout New Mexico for 30 years and was a nationally certified civil trial specialist. If you have questions, send them to Judge Malott, P.O. Box 8305, Albuquerque, NM 87198 or email to: alan@malottlaw.com. Opinions expressed here are solely those of Judge Malott individually and not those of the court.
