From: imran@panix.com (Imran Anwar)
Newsgroups: misc.legal
Subject: Real Anti-Arab & Anti-Islam Bias in the Court
Date: 13 Oct 92 14:14:37 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC

This is from the NY Times

Panel Acts to Censure Judge Over Anti Arab Comments

Special to The New York Times

MINEOLA, L.l., Oct. 1_The State Commission on Judicial
Conduct has recommended that a Nassau County Judge be
censured for anti-Arab remarks and "a series of biased and
abusive actions" directed at a lawyer of Syrian ancestry
during an off-the-record conference in the judge's robing
room two years ago.
 In findings released today, the commission said Acting
Justice Stuart L. in of State Supreme Court who is Jewish,
told the lawyer, Paul Saqqal Manhattan "You're our sworn
enemies," upon learning of Mr. Saqqal's ethnic background,
and then extend a middle finger twice toward him, saying,
"You know what this is, don't you?"
After Mr. Saqqal filed a complaint il February, Justice Ain
told the commission that his comments were ,.meant to be
humorous. But in its 'findings the commission said the
explanation "lacks credibility."
Justice Ain 64 years old, a County Court judge since 1983
and an acting State Supreme Court justice since
85, is appealing the commission's termination to the State
Court of Appeals, his lawyer, Kenneth J. Weinstein, said.
Mr. Weinstein said the gestures had not been intended for
Mr. Saqqal but were used by Justice Ain in telling story
about a driver who cut him off his way to the court. "The
judge," said, "is deeply disappointed by e commission and
its erroneous characterization of his conduct."
Mr. Saqqal, 48 who grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from
Cornell University Law School, said today that he thought
the commission was correct in rejecting the judge's
assertion that he was jesting. "I didn't take it for a joke, not
for a second," he said. "If you had been there and
experienced the entire tenor of the situation, you wouldn't
have taken it as a joke either."

The commission said Justice Ain's "hostile and insulting
words and gestures were intemperate, inappropriate and
conveyed the impression that he was biased against Mr.
Saqqal because of his ethnic background," but concluded
that there had been no bias in how Justice Ain ruled in the
civil case before him.
In his ruling in that case, which was not appealed by either
side, Justice Ain dismissed two counterclaims.

Censure, which the commission recommended for Justice
Ain, is one of three sanctions the commission can impose
and has been recommended 150 times over the last 13
years, said Gerald Stern, the commission's administrator.
Most of those cases involved part-time town and village
justices, he said. The commission can also recommend that
a judge be removed from the bench or admonished, the
mildest sanction.
Mr. Stern said censure carried no penalty "other than the
strong public criticism of the censure itself."
According to the findings, the exchange began when Mr.
Saqqal spelled his name at Justice Ain's request and the
judge asked, "You're not an Arab, are you?"

When Mr. Saqqal replied that he was of Arab ancestry, the
judge said, "You're our sworn enemies."
According to the commission findings, "Mr. Saqqal
responded that he was of Christian Arab ancestry" and the
judge "said that it didn't matter that Mr. Saqqal was from
Lebanon and repeated, 'You're still our enemies, and here's
what I have to say to you,' extending the middle finger of
his right hand at Mr. Saqqal."
Justice Ain then asked a second lawyer at the conference,
Martin H. Bodian, "whether he is Jewish and whether he knew
Ariel Sharon," the former Israeli Defense Minister. The
findings said Justice Ain said that he "admired" General
Sharon "for his hawkish views toward Arabs."
At the time, Mr. Saqqal and Mr. Bodian were opposing
lawyers before Justice Ain in a non-jury case involving
commercial litigation.
Mr. Bodian said today that he had not read the commission
report and could not comment on its findings. Asked if he
thought Justice Ain was trying to be humorous during the
exchange, Mr. Bodian, who is Jewish said, "I felt at the time
that he was joking, but I thought it was unusual."
     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ha!

Imran Anwar
Newsgroups: misc.legal,talk.politics.misc,k12.teacher.chat