FRANK CAGLE ON THE PROBLEM WITH JUDICIAL OVERSIGHT. “Defense attorneys and prosecutors cannot confront judges. They have no authority to tell them what to do and the prospect of having a judge mad at you (they think) is too terrible to contemplate. Judges can ruin your career and cost you your cases.”

Judges know it, too. When I was a fairly new law professor, I was at a cocktail party where a judge told me I should instruct my students to be extremely courteous as lawyers because a judge who’s miffed at a lawyer can cost his client a case. I’m all for courtesy, but I responded that harming a client out of pique at a lawyer struck me as a betrayal of one’s judicial oath every bit as serious as taking a bribe. He didn’t appreciate that, I’m afraid, but it’s certainly true. Either way the judge is abusing judicial power for personal gain.