How can the public trust a judge to be fair and impartial toward African Americans, Latinos, women and gays if that judge is engaged in disseminating messages that are demeaning toward those groups?
Democratic state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams and a coalition of clergy, civil rights and civic leaders are right to call for the immediate resignation of Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Eakin over his connection to an offensive email scandal.
Eakin needs to resign, along with three other officials who received the emails.
A diverse coalition of leaders including Rodney Muhammad, president of the Philadelphia NAACP; Rochelle Bilal, of the Guardian Civic League; Terrence Griffith, president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity; Malcolm Lazin, a LGBT leader; and Nina Ahmad, president of the NOW Philadelphia chapter, joined Williams at a press conference Monday calling for the resignations.
In addition to the resignations, there should be a special prosecutor, assigned by the state attorney general, to investigate an alleged cover-up.
Eakin’s emails went to district attorneys, public defenders, assistant U.S. attorneys and a significant number of private attorneys in the Harrisburg area.
The emails included offensive content that targeted African Americans, Latino Americans, LGBT Americans and Muslims.
Last week several women on City Council were right to lead an effort that called for the dismissal of three prosecutors at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. Frank Fina, Mark Costanzo and Pat Blessington allegedly were among the recipients of the emails.
District Attorney R. Seth Williams said he had reviewed the matter and the individuals involved were disciplined.
Williams is wrong on this one. Fina, Costanzo and Blessington should be fired.
As the Tribune reports, “The issue of the pornographic and otherwise offensive emails started coming to light during the increasing legal and political pressure being levied against state Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
“Kane recently had her legal license suspended and has been charged with perjury, obstructing administration of the law and related offenses. She has publicly argued that the reason for the grand jury investigation against her was directly connected to the thousands of pornographic and allegedly racist emails that were sent and received by state employees at the Attorney General’s offices.”
As a justice on the state Supreme Court, Eakin’s behavior should be beyond reproach.
The Pennsylvania Code of Judicial Conduct denotes standards for the ethical behavior of judges that says: “Judges should uphold the dignity of judicial office at all times, avoiding both impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in their professional and personal lives. They should at all times conduct themselves in a manner that garners the highest level of public confidence in their independence, fairness, impartiality, integrity and competence.”
Justice Eakin has failed the Code of Judicial Conduct that he is supposed to uphold.
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