BULLETINS FROM ALOHA

The Mother of All Illegal Ex Parte Contacts with the Judge:   We all know that it is completely against the law for one side to have contact with the judge without the other side being present.  Moreover, we all know that all proceedings pending before a court must be conducted in open court, in that court; there may not be secret proceedings behind the scenes. 

President Eisenhower was in favor of keeping the segregated school system.   President Eisenhower also liked to give stag (men-only) dinners at the White House. In the spring of 1954, prior to his decision in Brown v. Board of Education,  Supreme Court  Chief Justice Earl Warren was a guest at such a White House stag party.  At the gathering, President Eisenhower sidled up to Chief Justice Warren and stated:  " These (southerners) are not bad people.  All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes."  Earl Warren, The Memoirs of Earl Warren (Garden City. N.Y.; Doubleday, 1977)

In 2000, as was her custom, United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day-O'Connor spent election night at a party.  Everyone at the party knew the election would be close and the host placed televisions in most of the rooms so the guests could follow the results as they circulated at the event.  Justice O'Connor  settled into one small room to watch the TV proceedings when NBC called Florida for Gore.  Hearing Florida called for Gore, Justice O'Connor looked stricken and said, "This is terrible.  This means it is over."  Jeffry Tobin, The Nine,  Doubleday (2007), page 143.  The partygoers further discussed Justice O'Connor's statements.  Later,even though she recognized the equal protection and nonprecedential problems with the case, Justice O'Connor voted with the majority to hand the election to George W. Bush.  Tobin at 173