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By Terrie Morgan-Besecker tmorgan@timesleader.com
Law & Order Reporter
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WILKES-BARRE - Attorneys appeared before a federal judge today to argue whether former judges Michael Conahan, Mark Ciavarella and certain other defendants are immune from liability in a lawsuit that alleges juveniles were improperly incarcerated.

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Luzerne County judges Mark Ciavarella, left, and Michael Conahan walk out of the Federal Courthouse earlier this year in Scranton.

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The key issue centers on whether acts Conahan and Ciavarella took were part of their judicial duties.

The doctrine of judicial immunity provides judges wide protection from liability for decisions they make on the bench.

Attorney Marsha Levick, one of the attorneys for the juveniles, acknowledged the doctrine gives judges broad protection but she argued the conduct of Conahan and Ciavarella was so extreme that it fell outside those protections.

In Ciavarella’s case, that conduct included routinely denying juveniles their right to an attorney and pressuring juvenile probation officials into recommending detention, Levick said.

“Ciavarella made his own rules. He may as well have set up a courtroom in his garage and put on a black robe because he was acting outside the constitution,” Levick said.

The hearing is continuing before U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo.

Caputo is expected to take the arguments under advisement and issue a ruling at a later date.