Disorder in the Courts

Close encounters of the legal kind

Last week Seeing Red AZ addressed the issue of a demand letter sent to Arizona’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor by Lizzette Alameda Zubey, president of Los Abogados, the Hispanic Bar Association.

To recap: Zubey’s six-page letter included a list of words and phrases relating to illegal immigration, which the group deemed offensive. She demanded that McGregor instruct the state courts to discontinue their use.

And although Chief Justice McGregor, didn’t explicitly agree to the demand, she responded with a conciliatory letter promising to distribute the letter throughout the state courts. Her response included this gem: I request that the Commission on Minorities in the Judiciary consider whether any further distribution of your request would be helpful. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.

Regardless of the word games at play with this large-scale dissemination, it is not difficult to imagine how a trial court judge might interpret receipt of such a letter from the highest ranking judge in the state.

Hmm-m? Implement this or deep-six it?

McGregor’s pacifying action has the negative effect of undermining public confidence in the courts and has set off a firestorm of protests. KFYI radio talk show host and former congressman, J.D. Hayworth has been relentless in pursing the matter, resulting in the Supreme Court’s communications director, Cari Gerchick, being dispatched to make a guest appearance on his program. Her efforts at damage control became suspect when she stated that all correspondence received by the chief justice is forwarded to all of the courts. That could make for crowded court inboxes, but we’ll take her at her word.

Hayworth is nobody’s’ fool. Hearing this, he encouraged his thousands of listeners to send a letter of concern to Justice McGregor, which she would then forward to all of the judges in all of Arizona’s fifteen counties, as we have been assured she does with each piece of correspondence she receives.

Linda Bentley, reporter at the Sonoran News, also looks in on this outrageous march towards cultural divisiveness.

And, syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin covers the politically correct absurdity emanating from Arizona’s Supreme Court and its Chief Justice Ruth McGregor.