In Andalusia, Alabama, Covington County Circuit Judge Ashley McKathan has struggled to find ways to interject his faith into court proceedings. He had the Ten Commandments embroidered on his robe and,
as discussed earlier he asked the parties and staff in his courtroom to join in a prayer circle during a hearing earlier this year. Now, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed ethics charges against him over the incident.
It is curious to see this issue litigated in the ethics process, as opposed to a formal appeal. However, it is judicial misconduct to engage in such prostelitizing from the bench.
McKathan’s bizarre behavior affected about 100 people who saw the judge fall to his knees and pray aloud in February. He allegedly told the 100 people in the courtroom that he was not afraid to call on the name of Jesus Christ and ordered all to join hands and pray.
Many of these judges who appeal to sectarian passions remain popular in their districts. Ethics charges may be the best way to educate citizens of how unprofessional and unethical it is for a judge to engage in such conduct. McKathan is clearly beyond reform himself. He appears wholly unwilling to conduct himself within the well-defined lines of judicial conduct. He would seem better suited to more spiritual and judicial pursuits.
This judge is a disgrace to the justices system and he should be removed from the courthouse he has been A thorn in my side for about 13 years my exwife was involed in a murder in Crenshaw Co. I think it was in 1995 in the month of September I had to go to the Department of missing and exploited children service to find my daughter she was living in Tennessee and when I got her back here to court Judge McKathan gave custody to my exwife best of all I have no criminal record everything in that file of mind about me is complety untrue the case # DR 95.372 this Judge should spend time in jail not in a courtroom
Turley – you know all about proselytizing…unfort. the type you engage in is Islamic jihad
You’re a disgrace