High standards should be a requirement in government. Unfortunately, they are not.
Many elected officials are people you wouldn’t trust to water your lawn if you had to go out of town for a week, let alone trust with anything truly important. Such is the nature of the electoral process.
But judges are different — or, at least, they should be. Appointing people to powerful lifetime jobs is different. It should come with the highest possible standards. Unfortunately, this is not how things appear to be.
Imagine having a lifetime job, guaranteed. First off, the sense of relief must be exhilarating knowing there is almost nothing short of an impeachment that can affect your income professionally. With that relief comes complacency and, in many cases, arrogance. It’s human nature to let the lack of consequences change one's attitude.
We, the people, cannot let judges who are immune from consequences preside over the justice system with no standards of conduct or for recusal in cases of conflicts of interest. A functioning society needs to have faith in its justice system.
We all remember the conflicts of interest of New York Judge Juan Merchan,
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