Federal Judge Faces Complaint Over Racial Insults

A federal judge in Dallas is under a misconduct investigation, and the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council has pulled her off her docket for now. Bloomberg Law, citing transcripts, reports that Judge Ada Brown kept commenting on the race of attorney Ezra Young at an April 24 hearing, and Young filed the complaint. Fox News says investigators also ordered a psychiatric exam. The Daily Caller says she emailed sealed court records to roughly 140 judges, lawyers and reporters.

Brown filed a 76-page response denying wrongdoing and rejecting any mental health problem. She allows only that she could have handled the race discussion more delicately. Seventy-six pages is a lot of writing for a woman whose own defense is that she was a little indelicate. The outcome isn't known, and her side deserves a full hearing before anyone passes judgment. Meanwhile, on my ranch, we learned that you don't squat with your spurs on, and a courtroom is a poor place to find out why.