Trump has a right to ask if Judge Gonzalo Curiel is fair

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Alberto R. Gonzales: Trump has a right to ask if Judge Gonzalo Curiel is fair

By Alberto R. Gonzales

PostEverything

June 4

Alberto R. Gonzales served as White House counsel and U.S. attorney general in the George W. Bush administration. He is the dean and Doyle Rogers Distinguished Professor of law at Belmont University College of Law in Nashville, Tenn

An independent judiciary is extremely important. But that value is not the only one in play here. Equally important, if not more important from my perspective as a former judge and U.S. attorney general, is a litigant’s right to a fair trial. The protection of that right is a primary reason why our Constitution provides for an independent judiciary. If judges and the trials over which they preside are not perceived as being impartial, the public will quickly lose confidence in the rule of law upon which our nation is based. For this reason, ethics codes for judges — including the federal code of conduct governing Curiel — require not only that judges actually be impartial, but that they avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.” That appearance typically is measured from the standpoint of a reasonable litigant.

It is crucial to understand the real issue in this matter. I am not judging whether Curiel is actually biased against Trump. Only he knows the answer to that question. I am not saying that I would be concerned about him presiding over a case in which I was a litigant. And if I were a litigant who was concerned about the judge’s impartiality, I certainly would not deal with it in a public manner as Trump has, because it demeans the integrity of the judicial office and thus potentially undermines the independence of the judiciary, especially coming from a man who could be president by this time next year. But none of these issues is the test. The test is whether there is an “appearance of impropriety” under the facts as they reasonably appear to a litigant in Trump’s position.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/04/alberto-r-gonzales-trump-has-a-right-to-question-whether-hes-getting-a-fair-trial/?platform=hootsuite

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Report: Trump University Lawsuit Judge Appears to Have Ties to La Raza

United States District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the man presiding over the class-action lawsuit against Trump University, is a member of the La Raza Lawyers of San Diego and oversaw the gift of a law school scholarship to an illegal alien.

In his 2011 judicial questionnaire to become a federal judge, Curiel revealed his history with La Raza. GotNews.com originally reported this Tuesday, and The Daily Caller has independently verified.

Curiel lists “La Raza Lawyers of San Diego” as a legal association he has been a part of in the questionnaire. Curiel’s office at the United States District Court for the Southern District of California confirmed to TheDC the judge’s membership in the group.

Curiel reveals more ties to the group in his questionnaire. He has spoken at two receptions held by La Raza Lawyers of San Diego, the most recent being in 2011. Last year, the group also held a reception for Curiel. The description of the event says, “This year we are proud to be honoring Judge Gonzalo Curiel at our reception and recognizing him for his leadership and support to the community and to our Association.

In addition, Curiel served on the selection committee in 2014 for the La Raza Lawyers of San Diego Scholarship Fund. Six of seven of the recipients of these scholarships ranging from $1500 to $1600 were born in Central America. One of them, Ricardo Elorza, described himself as “undocumented.”

The revelations would seem to be representative of a huge conflict of interest that should lead to calls for the judge to recuse himself from what is increasingly looking like a politically motivated witch hunt.

http://downtrend.com/donn-marten/report-trump-university-lawsuit-judge-appears-to-have-ties-to-la-raza

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By Alberto R. Gonzales

LOL