Since we covered the SCOTUS, we also looked at the local judiciary around the U.S. Spoiler alert: not good. A judge from Arkansas named Mike Maggio posted himself from the bench to prison by revealing the details of a sealed adoption by Charlize Theron.

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Mike Maggio even took bribes from a nursing home corporation to reduce negligence / wrongful death judgments against the company and pinned all of this stuff on himself by posting about it on a college football forum. Maggio’s flagrant abuse of the law was uncovered by Matt Campbell of Blue Hog Report, a great example of a blog for any would-be local issues journalist. 1

As it turns out, Maggio may be the norm rather than the exception. A study of judge misconduct nationwide found approximately 16-20% of them have had some sort of reprimand, but 90% remained in office after being punished. Of those nefarious judges, 2/3 were punished anonymously so that possible victims of those judges can't even pinpoint their names. 2

Sandra talks about her time volunteering for a Senate campaign for Beto O'Rourke in Texas and we close up by recommending that people pay a little more attention to their local offices and local issues. You can do a lot more with a few friends and neighbors in your hometown than the spectacle of a presidential election can do for you. All of this brought to mind the all-time great political speech from Jesse Jackson during the 1984 campaign. "Rocks, just layin' around..." 3

1. Matt Campbell. Who Have You Wronged, Mr. Maggio? Hog Nation Turns Its Angry Eyes To You. (Woo woo wooooo.). Blue Hog Report. March 2014. ⇤

2. Michael Berens and John Shiffman. Thousands of U.S. Judges Who Broke Laws or Oaths Remained on the Bench. Reuters. June 2020. ⇤

3. Jesse Jackson. Rocks Layin' Around Speech. Youtube. October 2020. ⇤