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State Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin’s wildly inappropriate email exchanges suggest justice in Pennsylvania can be both blind and dumb. Really dumb.
Eakin, whose chauvinism showed through in messages to his pals about visiting strip clubs, was suspended from the bench with pay last week, pending a trial before the state’s judicial ethics court. Yet to be determined is whether Eakin’s electronic behavior violated any judicial conduct rules and, if so, how he should be punished.
In the meantime, the Court of Judicial Discipline finally saw the wisdom of removing Eakin from his post, where he supposedly dispensed judgments with impartiality.
The three-judge panel noted in its ruling that “the integrity of the Pennsylvania judiciary has been and continues to be subject to disrespect.”
Speaking of disrespect, Eakin’s inbox reportedly contained an equal-opportunity array of offensive “humor.” Among the emails retrieved from between 2008 and 2014 were “pictures and videos of topless women, and supposed jokes at the expense of gays, lesbians, feminists, drunken college girls, and, in one instance, nuns,” according to a Philadelphia Inquirer article.
“One mocked Muslim children as suicide bombers,” it stated, “another called Mexicans ‘beaners,’ and yet another joked about domestic-assault victims.”
Collectively, the contents of the stash, including lewd comments the 67-year-old Eakin made about his female employees, hint that he’s a dirty old man who happens to wear a judge’s robe instead of a bathrobe.
For his part, Eakin has apologized, even shed tears. He never meant for the emails, on his private account, to be made public. He maintained he probably never opened many of the messages, expressing regret that he hadn’t “put a spam filter on some of my friends.” (Your Honor, how about getting a higher class of friends? If they traded filth on government computers, people can guess how their conversations sounded in the clubhouse.)
Eakin also faulted “the tabloid press” for, in his view, blowing the situation out of proportion.
While he awaits his day in court, Eakin continues to receive his annual $203,409 salary as well as benefits.
Talk about obscene.