Washington Jewish Week Editorial

Unbiased judges are the bedrock of our judicial system. The concept of
judicial impartiality is often portrayed by Themis, the Greek goddess
of justice, who is blindfolded, with a sword and scales. The blindfold
tells us that the judge will not be swayed by instructions from the
executive branch of government; the scales are meant to show
even-handedness; the sword, indicates that honest decisions will be
carried out.
Allegedly, Chief District Judge Linda Reade was not symbolically
attired in that fashion when she made her ruling in the case against
Shalom Rubashkin. The judge had sentenced the kosher meatpacking
executive to 27 years in prison earlier this summer after he was
convicted on federal financial fraud charges.
According to an article on the website The Cutting Edge, federal
documents and court filings indicate that the judge had been intimately
involved in planning the raid on the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant
in Postville, Iowa, in 2008. The raid led to the trial and sentencing
of Rubashkin.
She “participated in many aspects of the raid and prosecution ‘game
plan’ nearly from its planning inception in October, 2007, some six
months before the raid and long before the ultimate trial of Rubashkin
before her,” the reporter writes.
The judge allegedly did not disclose her involvement in the case as
federal law dictates, although she did state that she had been in
contact with law-enforcement personnel to ensure that the workers in
the plant would have access to attorneys and translators following the
raid.
Rubashkin’s lawyers —Nathan and Alyza Lewin of the District — have
filed papers calling for a retrial and the judge’s recusal.
If these allegations are proven to be accurate, the judge’s conduct was
appalling. A judge being intimately involved in the prosecution of an
accused is a gross violation of the most basic principles of the law.
In trials, appearances count. Even a hint of bias undermines the
public’s faith not only in the decision at hand but the American system
of justice.
That’s especially so in this case where a fervently Orthodox Jew was
tried in a place where most people probably had never even seen a Jew
prior to the meat plant’s opening. And, to further complicate matters,
the defendant was sentenced to 27 years in prison, two years more than
the 25 the prosecution asked for.
We are not advocating for Rubashkin, but rather for impartial judges
and justice, without even a hint of bias.
Toward that end, a new trial would seem to be in order.