Off the Record

Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged. Not since Robert Bork has a member of the bench been as misrepresented as Kenneth L. Ryskamp, President Bush’s pick for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Last year Cato reported on the campaign against the judge led by the usual suspects, including People for the American Way. Though the nomination was stalled, the President has again put forward his name, and again things are heating up.

Much of the “evidence” against Judge Ryskamp is based on a 1990 Miami Review article entitled “Just Saying No to Rights.” Among the many charges, the most notorious is the paper’s accusation that the judge told a 15-year-old boy who was suing the police for brutality that it might be appropriate for him to carry around the scars from an attack by a police dog that tore his testicles as a “reminder of your wrongdoing.” The boy in question, however, was only a witness, not the one suing. More to the point, the judge never directed any such comment to either plaintiff or witness. The quotation was lifted from the judge’s philosophical musings to the attorneys, after the jury had left the room, on the general consequences of using police dogs, particularly as compared to the rather more brutal practices of countries that do things like chop your hands off for stealing.

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Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged. Not since Robert Bork has a member of the bench been as misrepresented as Kenneth L. Ryskamp, President Bush’s pick for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Last year Cato reported on the campaign against the judge led by the usual suspects, including People for the American Way. Though the nomination was stalled, the President has again put forward his name, and again things are heating up.

Much of the “evidence” against Judge Ryskamp is based on a 1990 Miami Review article entitled “Just Saying No to Rights.” Among the many charges, the most notorious is the paper’s accusation that the judge told a 15-year-old boy who was suing the police for brutality that it might be appropriate for him to carry around the scars from an attack by a police dog that tore his testicles as a “reminder of your wrongdoing.” The boy in question, however, was only a witness, not the one suing. More to the point, the judge never directed any such comment to either plaintiff or witness. The quotation was lifted from the judge’s philosophical musings to the attorneys, after the jury had left the room, on the general consequences of using police dogs, particularly as compared to the rather more brutal practices of countries that do things like chop your hands off for stealing.