Chief U.S. District Judge of Montana Richard Cebull is under fire for a joke that he sent to friends from his court email. The email has been denounced as racist and “compares African-Americans to dogs.” He insists that it was not for public circulation and reflected his dislike for the president, not black people.
Judge Cebull sent an email entitled “A MOM’S MEMORY.” It opened with the statement “Normally I don’t send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.” It follows with this “joke”: “A little boy said to his mother; ‘Mommy, how come I’m black and you’re white?’ His mother replied, ‘Don’t even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!’”
Cebull says that it was only sent to six other people as well as his own private emails. It appears that one of the six other people sent it along to the media.
Cebull insists that the email simply shows that “I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan. I didn’t send it as racist, although that’s what it is. I sent it out because it’s anti-Obama.”
We previously saw Chief Judge Alex Kozinski involved in a controversy over pictures and jokes sent to friends over a personal website.
The case raises the question of how to respond to such an email. Some have called for his resignation or removal. Others for judicial discipline. There are two likely ethical charges. One is the misuse of the court computer and the other is the transmission of a racist communication.
First, judges routinely use their work emails for private communications. We all tend to use office email for a variety of purposes. I do not see how this judge can be severely disciplined for simply using office email for a private communication. If Cebull is punished, what about the fact that probably 90% of judges use their office emails for private messages as the rest of us do (the other ten percent do not use email).
Second, there is the racism charge. Cebull insists that this was anti-Obama and not anti-black. It is still a stupid joke. However, I am not sure it is fair to assume that the judge is a racist from this one joke. It could simply show that he is entirely clueless and thoughtless. That is never good in a judge, but the question is whether it warrants the actions demanded against him.
Working in his favor is the relatively small number of people who received the email (though one always has to anticipate re-transmissions or forwarding of emails). He was sharing a bad and racially loaded joke with friends. We have discussed the trend toward punishing public employees for private emails, postings, and activities. Of course, a judge is required under ethical rules not to conduct themselves in a way to bring contempt upon the court. Canon Two states “a judge should respect and comply with the law and should act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.” The comment Canon 2A does seem to have some relevance here:
Canon 2A. An appearance of impropriety occurs when reasonable minds, with knowledge of all the relevant circumstances disclosed by a reasonable inquiry, would conclude that the judge’s honesty, integrity, impartiality, temperament, or fitness to serve as a judge is impaired. Public confidence in the judiciary is eroded by irresponsible or improper conduct by judges. A judge must avoid all impropriety and appearance of impropriety. This prohibition applies to both professional and personal conduct. A judge must expect to be the subject of constant public scrutiny and accept freely and willingly restrictions that might be viewed as burdensome by the ordinary citizen. Because it is not practicable to list all prohibited acts, the prohibition is necessarily cast in general terms that extend to conduct by judges that is harmful although not specifically mentioned in the Code. Actual improprieties under this standard include violations of law, court rules, or other specific provisions of this Code.
While I certainly see why this type of joke raises serious and legitimate concerns, I am not convinced that it warrants punishment beyond the current (and justified) public criticism. The judge is claiming that he thought he was sending this to a handful of friends. It would be akin to a bad joke at a party being repeated later. He clearly failed to appreciate that “the subject of constant public scrutiny and accept freely and willingly restrictions that might be viewed as burdensome by the ordinary citizen.” That would include racially-charged jokes that get out. Yet, the question is whether it warrants an actual reprimand or more serious punishment. There may be a sense that, given the use of the court computer, an admonishment is needed — just as Chief Judge Kozinski was admonished.
Cebull received a B.S. from Montana State University in 1966 and a J.D. from the University of Montana Law School in 1969. After a long stint in private practice, he served as trial judge of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Court from 1970 to 1972. He then served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Montana from 1998 to 2001 before being nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Montana. He became chief judge in 2008.
Source: Politico
Rush Limbaugh’s attack on Sandra Fluke was hate speech
By Jamila Bey
Radio host Rush Limbaugh is so keen on pornography, he’s suggested an entirely new genre of it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/rush-limbaughs-attack-on-sandra-fluke-was-hate-speech/2012/03/02/gIQAZVxrmR_blog.html
Excerpt:
Radio host Rush Limbaugh is so keen on pornography, he’s suggested an entirely new genre of it.
In an attack against the Georgetown University law student, Sandra Fluke, who House Republicans wouldn’t let testify at a hearing on insurance coverage for contraception, Limbaugh shared his ideas about what should happen to women who dare disagree with him on women’s health.
He said, “So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. We want you post the videos online so we can all watch.”
He also called Fluke a “slut” and a prostitute after she argued that birth control should be covered by health insurance at religious institutions.
The Washington Post’s Melinda Henneberger argued in an earlier piece that Fluke may not have been the best witness for a very different reason: As a student, rather than an employee, of Georgetown, her insurance coverage would not change one way or the other under the Affordable Care Act as currently written, with or without a religious exemption to institutions like the Jesuit school Fluke attends.
Fluke has, however, proven quite fit when it comes to resisting the hackneyed and typical attacks inflicted upon women who choose to raise their voices.
Fluke said in a statement, “The millions of American women who have and will continue to speak out in support of women’s health care and access to contraception prove that we will not be silenced.”
And how!
What Limbaugh did – and does frequently – is “slut-shaming” and it’s no less hateful and derogatory than racial slurs.
Any woman who dares admit that she is anything other than a virginal “Madonna” is rebuked and intimidated into silence and shame. And this tactic is profoundly dangerous in this context of helping to insure women’s health.
“She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception,” Limbaugh said of Fluke.
Let us ignore for the moment that Fluke was testifying about a friend who is too afraid to come out publicly and announce her need for birth control for a medical reason, and so spends $1,000 a year on medicines that are free or nearly so on insurance plans that don’t adhere to Catholic doctrine.
This is a textbook attack on a woman for being female and for speaking up.
“Anonymously Yours1, March 3, 2012 at 7:07 am
Gene,
Maybe that’s a good thing….. Apologies are always a good thing….. Especially when you want to keep your lifetime appointment…..”
AY
Want to tell me what that means?
Cebull to Obama: “I sincerely and profusely apologise to you and your family for the email that I forwarded
Cebull: “The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan,” Cebull said. “I didn’t send it as racist, although that’s what it is. I sent it out because it’s anti-Obama.”
Huffington Post: “Richard Cebull, Montana’s chief federal judge, apologized to Obama after admitting he forwarded an email comparing African-Americans to dogs and implying that President Barack Obama’s mother had sex with animals.”
HuffPo’s slant is worthy of Limbaugh. It’s the kind of drivel we see all over the GOP Primaries. Everything twisted into a fantasy.
Cebull did not admit that he forwarded an email comparing African-Americans to dogs and implying that President Barack Obama’s mother had sex with animals. He simply said that he forwarded that lame joke that we all read.
The lame joke into which the word “Obama” was inserted:
A little boy said to his mother; ‘Mommy, how come I’m Chinese and you’re Japanese?’ His mother replied, ‘Don’t even go there! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!
So: This joke compared Chinese to dogs and implies that Japanese women have sex with animals? Seriously?
Anyone who thinks that sticking the name “Obama” into an old lame joke is even approaching a suggestion that Obama’s mother had sex with animals is either a fool or a villain. Same goes for asserting that it compared African-Americans to dogs.
besides, being a domineering undermining prick leads to paranoia…
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/pennsylvania-doctor-identified-as-sender-of-suspicious-package-2212730.html
dom·i·nate (dm-nt)
v. dom·i·nat·ed, dom·i·nat·ing, dom·i·nates
v.tr.
1. To control, govern, or rule by superior authority or power: Successful leaders dominate events rather than react to them.
2. To exert a supreme, guiding influence on or over: Ambition dominated their lives.
3. To enjoy a commanding, controlling position in: a drug company that dominates the tranquilizer market.
4. To overlook from a height: a view from the cliffside chalet that dominates the valley.
v.intr.
1. To have or exert strong authority or mastery.
2. To be situated in or occupy a position that is more elevated or decidedly superior to others.
—————-
I just don’t understand this whole fucking concept.
If you do this to to another human being it is tantamount to saying that you do not beleive yourself to be human….why would any person SEEK to dominate another?
Do you know how much damage people to do one another because they think this crap is important?????
Well elaine…… I cannot pretend to speak for others…. But I think I can say fairly…. That Mike S. has posted salient advice for men to follow….
Then I see we get a weather change….. You might be right….
“Sorry guys went to bed. Been a little under the weather lately, my ears are killing me. I think it was the increased pressure from being in the mountains last week while attending a gymnastics meet.”
Bdaman,
I don’t doubt your story about not feeling well and send you my sympathy’s. I must, however, put it into context your pleading for understanding. You have posted a series of scurrilous attack upon a woman who testified before a House sub-committee about birth control. The attacks were indeed vile, but people miss the point of why they occurred:
“The morning panel at the hearing consisted exclusively of men from conservative religious organizations.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/16/contraception-hearing-house-democrats-walk-out_n_1281730.html
Issa had made two obvious tactical mistakes that would have negative consequences for the Republican Agenda and was stupid in the process.
The first was that while I’m sure he could have found many conservative women to have testified the way he wanted, he was too lazy to do so.
The second was that by making it men only, given that overwhelming amounts of conservative women also use birth control, his hearings could fracture a percentage of the conservative base. The hearing and its witnesses, judging by the national reaction, was a political disaster.
Since Issa is, and has been a leading Republican legislator, damage control was needed. Therefore Ms. Fluke was viciously slandered for being a feminist activist. Nice job of propaganda because it tries to draw people’s attention away from the fact that the four men were also activists, who in fact were making a living off of their activism. The reason that Conservatives have been successful in framing the National debate in their terms is that through such tactics of deception and lies that enlist the corporate press in what is really their public relations work.
To get back to your role in this, whether you are paid to do this flack work is irrelevant, you do it consistently. Whether we feel personal sympathy at the travails of life you’ve gone through, it remains a fact that you do perform this “flack” work continually, with little respite to just kick back and present your own point of view. This issue is really not one that deals with political affiliation and/or religious belief. If it were then many might realize that the Republican position against birth control means that they are really pro-Abortion and for out of wedlock children. Ultimately, it is about a hatred of women’s sexuality. Any real man, no matter what his politics, should be a defender of a woman’s right to choose to be sexual or not. If they can’t they have no business being involved with women unless those women are sex workers. This is really where Limbaugh is coming from, as his personal history shows. Based on the evidence of four marriages with no offspring, my guess is the man your are defending is a sexual deviant, who doesn’t need his women to use birth control, because his sex is more about S/M,
B/D, or more far out methods of gratification.
You have not done yourself proud in covering up for all of this stupid political theater and have actually made a caricature out of your political beliefs, by merely passing along untruthful pieces of attempted writing. When I said chill above, Bdaman, I meant it. Conservative views are welcome here, if they are honestly come by. I know you are intelligent, so why not express your own views, in your own writing, rather than using cut and paste. You might garner more respect here if you did.
Another right-wing blowhard weighs in on Sandra Fluke:
Bill O’Reilly Attacks Sandra Fluke: Claims She Wants Government To Pay For Her ‘Social Life’
By Judd Legum on Mar 2, 2012
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/03/02/437076/bill-oreilly-attacks-sandra-fluke/
Excerpt:
Bill O’Reilly has joined Rush Limbaugh’s sexist assault on 30-year-old law student Sandra Fluke. On tonight’s broadcast, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly attacked and mocked Sandra Fluke, claiming that Fluke was insisting the government pay for her “social life.” O’Reilly’s attack mirrors Limbaugh, who has insisted on that Fluke’s advocacy for contraception coverage is motivated by sexual promiscuity.
Sorry guys went to bed. Been a little under the weather lately, my ears are killing me. I think it was the increased pressure from being in the mountains last week while attending a gymnastics meet. Which, my wifes team did exceptionally well. One of her level tens took 1st place in the all around as did one of her 8’s and one of her 9’s took second place, same category. Anyways my life is surrounded by women always has been. They’ve always been attracted to me for one reason or another. Growing up I looked like a young Michael Jackson. I had that big Afro all the way through high school so that was part of it in my younger days as Michael and I were close in proximity to age and looks.
Anyways that being said, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the request with puppy dog faces and fluttering eye lashes with a plea of can you please run to the store and get me tampons, Or hey can you pick up my birth control pills. So please don’t think I’m not sympathetic vs just pathetic 🙂 to a womans needs, I am. I just don’t think that tax payers should be on the hook. I don’t think they should be on the hook for Viagra either. That whole issue was big a few years ago. If you don’t remember there was a big stink about bailing out GM with tax payer dollars and how much money was spent covering viagra through their health plan. I was vocal about that being wrong. Speaking of Viagra and wrong and the fact you guys think my thinking is backwards.
Dems reject amendment to ban Viagra for sex offenders
Democrats killed an amendment by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to prevent the newly created insurance exchanges from using federal money to cover Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs for rapists, pedophiles and other sex offenders. The amendment failed 57-42
http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0310/Dems_reject_amendment_to_ban_Viagra_for_sex_offenders.html
and
GM Spends $17 Million Per Year on Viagra
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/04/gm_viagra.html
AY,
Then there must be lots of men in this country who aren’t in their right minds.
No person in the right mind would be like that elaine…. As Buddha once said….. An intelligent woman is an aphrodisiac……in which I tend to agree….
Woosty,
“the extreme right HATE intelligent women.”
Especially when they are outspoken and can’t be dominated.
the extreme right HATE intelligent women.
period.
Bdaman,
“No one forced Sandra to come to Georgetown. And now that she has, Sandra does not have to depend on the university health plan.”
Is there not a biblical principle that encourages carrying the burdens of the weak? Then I hope Sandra is living that principle. She makes the demands to our system, fights the fight, carries the burden for those who can not carry them.
As you point out she can afford paying herself. Maybe, but beside the point.
The point is that many can not affored the contraception. Nor the fight to get their rights.
If she is wealthy, then I say thank goodness that some well-off do something out of their usual “me-first” routine. That in itself could be worth a few headlines—-maybe it was part of the message.
Fluke is practicing very well; building networks, making powerful contacts, getting cred, experience in flying in front of the media, handling stardom’s special needs. etc.
Maybe you should consider applying as an aide to her and learn some tricks ourself.
PS: How’re the grades doing? And your student debt.
And are yur the Bdaman of climate wars here?
Haven’t got through the evening’s batch and already tired of Bdaman.
You are good but he is as usual. Avoids answering telling points, etc.
I particularly the question of whether he had Kochs as employer now.
Who sponsored him on his climate warming harangue? Big Oil?
Summary. Why does he get to fly around center stage? Not jealous so shut up Bdaman. I mean he just flits around and he flits away from your swipes.
If you take away the light will he go to sleep like most insects??
IOW, ignore tha bastard—–is he fun to toy with. Like kittens playing with a toy mouse? Only this one skreeks so the ears hurt.
Blouise,
Hope issa is scared.
And hope you will post some recipes here. Will trade.
Gene H.
I understand I would have gotten the same rebuttal based on your legal reasoníng, but hopefully have avoided making you angry. Yes, no?
Gene H.
Now am awake while you all sleep.
Read your reply about Mike S.
I can only offer two observations about my attacks on you as a person.
One, the same content which is my intention to convey could have been delivered in a non-belligerent manner. Yes, I realize that now, I think I do at least. The thought just occurred to me now.
.
My attack (roughly) “Havn’t you ever hung out with some racist gang?” was meant to imply that if you had hung out or been exposed to it otherwise; then you would know what racism is, and how it smells.
We were discussing the judge and determining if he intended to be a shitter or if he had tempoarily been afflicted with loose bowels. And joining in with the lynch gang is easily done—-as recently remarked the presumption of innocence seems to be celebrated by the contrary..
However, it WAS put in personal terms, as it was aggressively and demeaningly put, for emphasis.
Principle 1. Attack the person, demean their perceptible weak points (visible, obvious preferably), etc., thus by implication (guilt by association or “consider the source” reaoning) to demean or ridicule the idea expressed.
Having never learned to trust, then the trust necessary to pose a simple question or inquire without opening for defeat is difficult.
The same message could have been a simple non demeaning inquiry.
For example:
“Have you noticed how one racist joke follows another in racist circles. If we hear one, can we reasonably suspect it has been foregone by other, and is a habitual form of expression by the utterer?
Then can we suspect this judge, having been found sending out to a circle of friends a racist joke, can he be reasonalbly suspected to have sent out similar missives previously”.
Would that have been better? It’s not easy to break old habits, but it will be necessary to do so for my own benefit. So help will be appreciated.
You are not here to be my therapist, so no answer is demande, nor am I
here to be your punching bag, to vent your anger at by showing your superior mental skills.
Can’t really complain as the shock therapy has perhaps functioned like that said to be used ´by zen masters, when striking a sharp blow to the student, causes enligtenment to occur. Not to gild the lily. But your attacks could have been rebutted, but your endurance and skills exceed mine—-so reflection on the meaning, worth and other personal alternatives were considered. I was tired simply. Reflection won.
Let us see how the future develops, peacefully I hope, with a changed stance from me, and hopefully no rancor from you.
.
Bdaman, no thoughts on Rush lying about Ms. Fluke’s testimony in order to call her and other Georgetown students sluts? Nothing to say on wanting sex tapes in return for insurance companies providing certain medicines? I asked a couple of simple questions in response to your last postings, no response?
How about if those same insurance companies provide Viagra and the cost of that is democratized across their entire customer base that all of the men that get it have to post sex tapes? And the pumps? I think that suggestion came up on Maddow. Certainly all of the young men at Ms. Fluke’s college that may be getting prescription Viagra aren’t using it for procreation?
How would you feel about that? What do you think about equal treatment in that regard?
Elaine, Thanks for the info about Rush’s sex tourism. I’d like to know where he spends his time in the Dominican Republic since the tourist areas specialize in what they have to offer, and some venues within towns also specialize. Does he hang out at the bars and hotels where the female prostitutes are to be found? The beaches where the male prostitutes hang out? Maybe he spends time in Boca Chica which has little to offer but child prostitutes.
Child Prostitution and Sex Tourism
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
http://www.childtrafficking.com/Docs/o_connell_1996__child_prost3.pdf
Richard Cebull, Montana Federal Judge, Apologizes To Obama For Racist Email
Gene,
Maybe that’s a good thing….. Apologies are always a good thing….. Especially when you want to keep your lifetime appointment…..