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| SCOTUS Overturns Same Liberal Judge Three Times In One Week |
| 2011-01-25 |
| Unanimously reversing the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the third time in a week, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that state prisoners have no constitutional right to be paroled. The decision rebuked the San Francisco-based appeals court for ordering the parole of several inmates who had been convicted of murder or attempted murder. All three of the opinions overturned in the past week were written by veteran liberal Judge Stephen Reinhardt of Los Angeles. In Monday's decision, the justices said Reinhardt and the 9th Circuit were wrong to second-guess the California parole board and the state courts for denying parole to Damon Cooke of Los Angeles, who was convicted of the attempted murder of a friend in Berkeley in 1991. Cooke was given a term of up to life in prison, and the parole board said he "would pose an unreasonable risk to society if released from prison." Cooke appealed and lost in the state courts, but last year, Reinhardt and the 9th Circuit said parole officials did not have enough evidence to justify denying him parole. The California attorney general's office appealed and, without hearing arguments in the case, the Supreme Court reversed the 9th Circuit in an unsigned opinion. "There is no right under the federal Constitution to be conditionally released before the expiration of a valid sentence, and the states are under no duty to offer parole to their prisoners," the justices said in Swarthout vs. Cooke. "That should have been the beginning and the end" of the matter in the federal courts. California prosecutors said that since Reinhardt's ruling last June, several dozen state inmates had won parole from federal judges, and several hundred more appeals were pending. Reinhardt is a piece of work. Appointed by Carter, he is known is known as one of the most liberal judges in the country. And perhaps the most overturned-by-the-SCOTUS judge in the country. He is the one who overruled California voters in overturning Prop 8. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #3 It would be better simply to not fund the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and let other appellate courts pick up the cases. |
| Posted by: whatadeal 2011-01-25 14:33 |
| #2 Isn't that some sort of record? Seriously, this is why we need to be able to vote these fuckheads out of office instead of appointing them for life. Term limits and accountable to the voters. For all judges, state and federal. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2011-01-25 11:58 |
| #1 You'd think someone would get the idea and disbar him. |
| Posted by: gorb 2011-01-25 10:36 |