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“We just hope that the ruling will lead to some permanent change within the district,” Robinson said. Miller’s counsel, Terrence Robinson of the TB Robinson Law Group, said he’s gratified that the 5th Circuit directly addressed Judge Hughes’ behavior. The universities argued in their briefs that Judge Hughes’ conduct did not warrant reassignment. The universities were both represented by the Texas Attorney General’s office, whose lead lawyer in the Miller litigation didn’t respond to my email. He also did not immediately respond to a phone message left at his chambers in Houston. Judge Hughes didn’t respond to my email requesting comment on the 5th Circuit’s ruling in the Miller case, previous decisions reassigning his cases or his overall appellate record. We didn't let girls do it in the old days.” The 5th Circuit did not detail why it yanked the case from Hughes, although the court noted a comment the judge made when he excoriated the female prosecutor: “It was lot simpler when you guys wore dark suits, white shirts and navy ties. Swenson that the government’s revived case against the operator of an adoption agency must be reassigned after Judge Hughes erroneously found prosecutorial misconduct. In 2015, as I reported at the time, the 5th Circuit overturned Hughes’ summary judgment ruling for Shell in a long-running False Claims Act case and ordered the litigation reassigned “to preserve the appearance of justice, given the long delays, repeated errors and cursory reasoning in the district court’s opinions to date.”Īnd in 2018, the appeals court said in U.S. Remarkably, this is at least the third time in the last several years that the 5th Circuit has exercised the extraordinary authority to reassign a case after reversing Judge Hughes. “When a judge’s actions stand at odds with these basic notions, we must act or suffer the loss of public confidence in our judicial system.” “A litigant has the fundamental right to fairness in every proceeding,” Judge Wilson wrote for the 5th Circuit. And under the stricter standard of whether the judge can be expected to put aside his erroneous views, the court said, there was reason to doubt that Judge Hughes could fairly decide the case, based on “the cumulative weight of (his) prejudicial comments and peremptory rulings.” The 5th Circuit ordered Miller’s revived case to be reassigned to another judge, finding that his behavior “from the outset … evinced a prejudgment of Miller’s claims.” A reasonable observer, the court said, would question Hughes’ partiality. So, please, do not burden the record with side trips.” It is not important to your case what you think about what nine old people on the Potomac River talk about something. At one point, he interjected: “Ma’am, you’re not to lecture the state of Texas on the law. He even sat in on parts of Miller’s deposition, which took place in his jury room. The judge, according to the 5th Circuit, refused to allow Miller to depose a key witness from the University of Houston but allowed the school to depose Miller. The 5th Circuit panel – Judges Grady Jolly, Leslie Southwick and Cory Wilson – dedicated most of the opinion to Hughes’ imperious and evidently biased conduct in the litigation.Īt the very first conference in the case, the judge told Miller’s lawyer he would “get credit for closing two cases when I crush you.” Hughes said Miller seemed chronically disgruntled, but said it seemed to him that “her only complaint here is likely she was paid less but that she didn’t get tenure.” The 5th Circuit overturned Hughes' grant of summary judgment to the two Texas universities in gender discrimination and retaliation cases brought by Audrey Miller, a onetime psychology professor.īut that’s not all. Sam Houston State University and Miller v. Judge Hughes’ appellate record will not improve with the 5th Circuit’s consolidated ruling Friday in Miller v. Want more On the Case? Listen to the On the Case podcast. The Houston judge, a Ronald Reagan appointee who has sat on the bench since 1985, has the second-lowest affirmance rate in his district among judges who have had at least 100 decisions reviewed by the 5th Circuit. Circuit Court of Appeals is an affirmance rate of 72%, according to Westlaw’s litigation analytics. District Judge Lynn Hughes’ record when his rulings go up for review to the 5th U.S.
I doubt there’s any longtime federal judge who has a perfect record of affirmance in the appellate courts.īut some are worse than others.
Us fifth circuit court of appeals judge trial#
(Reuters) - Federal trial judges enjoy tremendous discretion in running their cases, but, inevitably, they sometimes make mistakes.
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