Court Opinion

ID: 9645910
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:40:01.619196+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:32.914300
License: Public Domain

MAUZY, Justice,
concurring.
This proceeding should never have arisen. In appointing Judge Stephen Pres-lar to preside over this case, the Chief Justice of this court acted entirely outside the scope of any legitimate power. As such, the assignment of Judge Preslar was void ab initio.
This case illustrates the inherent flaw of any system that would allow one political figure to appoint judges without accountability to the voters. The potential for abuse of that power is too tempting. In this particular proceeding, not only is it clear that the Chief Justice acted outside the scope of any statutory or constitutional authority in assigning an appellate judge to sit within the region of his residence, but we do not even have anything in the record before us to show that the elected sitting judge, Judge Gonzalez, ever officially requested to be relieved of the case. From all that confronts us in the record, it appears that the appointment of this particular judge to hear this particular case was simply an edict handed down from on high.