Only in Orange County: Judge Jughead & the usual pious suspects

OC judge who fixed traffic tickets ordered to resign (LA Times)

Don't worry. I'll take care of it.

     A longtime Orange County judge who waived traffic fines for friends and family has been ordered to step down from his office.
     A state oversight panel found nine occasions dating back to 2003 in which Richard W. Stanford Jr. diverted traffic cases to his court in order to help people he knew avoid fines.
     The pattern “created both the appearance and the reality of a two-track system of justice — one for his friends and family and another for all others,” the 11-member Commission on Judicial Performance wrote in its decision Tuesday.
     “Removal is necessary to restore public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary and honor the commission’s mandate to ensure the even-handed administration of justice,” the ruling stated.
. . .
     The beneficiaries of his actions included his son-in-law, friends, a juror in his court and the pastor at his church....

Orange County's fix-it judge – and his pastor (LA Times; editorial)

Really? I don't get to do that?

     It's bad enough that an Orange County judge was fixing tickets for friends and family – he's been ordered to resign – but perhaps the most interesting part of the whole story is that one of the beneficiaries of his misdeeds was his pastor.
     According to a state panel, Richard W. Stanford Jr. diverted at least nine traffic cases to his court in order to help people he knew avoid fines. Stanford fully deserves to lose his job, and authorities also should be looking into filing charges. But now that everyone at his church will know about this, it's also hard not to wonder whether they will view their spiritual leader as someone who can lead them away from temptation -- or model taking responsibility for one's actions.
     But then, the flock could decide this is the perfect chance to show that it knows how to forgive.

Rogues in Robes (Orange Coast Magazine)

     …But when you compare the disciplinary record of all of the county’s Superior Court judges with the records of judges elsewhere, a startling reality emerges: Orange County has the second-highest discipline rate for judicial misconduct in Southern California—everything from run-of-the-mill indiscretion to drunken driving to possession of child porn. (And four of those judges, none of whom are still in office, were repeat offenders.) Orange County’s rate is about twice those of neighboring Los Angeles and San Diego counties. In these parts, only Riverside County ranks higher….

A nation of spectators

Democracy Faces a 'Crucible Moment,' Says Report, but Colleges Can Help (Dan Berrett, Chronicle of Higher Education)

     American democracy will confront an increasingly bleak future unless colleges make civic learning a central part of students' education, says a report released Tuesday by the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement.
     "This is a moment of serious reckoning for our democracy," said Carol Geary Schneider, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities and one of the members of the task force that produced the report, "A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy's Future." It was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education.
     The report coincides with a daylong event on Tuesday at the White House. It calls for colleges to renew their commitment to civic education at a time when higher education is talked about chiefly as a means of job training.
     Civic learning and democratic engagement should become explicit goals of college, and take more forms than civics courses, the authors say. For example, every discipline should teach relevant civic issues and debates.
     As envisioned in the report, each college would demonstrate as part of its "defining character" a spirit of public-mindedness, openness, and civility. Colleges would cut money from areas that are less critical and apply it to these efforts instead. They would also train students to be civically literate and encourage them to continue working for the public good after graduating.
. . .
     Worries about America's civic health have been widely noted for decades. A national commission on civic renewal in 1998 fretted about the citizenry being "in danger of becoming a nation of spectators." In 2010, just one in four high-school seniors scored proficient or better on national civics exams, and college seniors do not fare much better on other measures, the report says.
. . .
     The report … asks higher-education leaders, faculty, and staff to take on another duty when its plate is growing increasingly full. In recent years, colleges have been called on to make higher education more accessible to more students, constrain tuition costs, produce more graduates, train them for jobs, stimulate local economies, and figure out how to assess how much students are learning….