Ka Nupepa Elele, Volume XII, Number 27, 14 February 1891 — CONTEMPT OF COURT. [ARTICLE]

CONTEMPT OF COURT.

There is pending bofore the Legislature at the present time u bill rogarding contempt uf e ourt tō whieh no valid objection <un ?ie urged, and whieh should be into a law without delay, It provūlu3, feubstantially, that if a judge thini.a he hae been libeled or defamed lie shall not be allowed to act as corcplaining witness, judge, jury and ex«outioner all at the same time, but raupt reeort to the game maans for pto<iui;ing reparation whieh are given So everybody else. TUe bill. aoes not touch that portion of the present law whieh civeB the power to punish lor interference with the administiation of justice, but simply depriven a judge of the power to punish by t.ammary process for statements or pub'ications concerning a judge or officor made out of court ana not tending w> interfere with tho pi - ocess ofaa trial or prooeeding. *This is the rule whieh has been in force in the United St>ates cc>urts for sixty years, and it has been found to, work admirably, and ther>j is no reasoja why the Legislature of Cali-1 fornia should confer upon the judge of a State court a despotic euthority whieh Congress will not psrmit to tho judges of Federal cour£s.,, j

But independent of the Federal custora the law should be Jtaended, it is not right or that a judg6 should have the po,ver now reposed in him under cont<»capt prooeedings. This is the land of Free thought and free Bpeech, fiud when the Constitution of Cnlifor na 6ays that'' Every citizen may freejy apeak, write and publish his"Bentijuents on on all subjeets, being responsible for the abuse of that right. and no law shall be passed to re«train or abridge the liberty of speei:h or the press, it doea not mean that eiieh right is to be subordinated to the whim 01 caprice of a judickl officer. nor that the liberty of the is to be abridged bv summary iiroeess because he nas d"ared to Buy that a public servant is unfit foi the poeition i whieh he oeeupiea. Contempt of <Jourt i« one thvug, eontempt of the Judge is ;uiotlior, though raost judges decline to recog-; niae the distinctiou. One ei-judge opposes the bill because, he sayd,! if it pass any lawyer ean inauli a ( conrt the moment it adjoum®. This is bad logic, to «\y the least, for if a cowrt has abjourned it is no longer a court, and henee cannot be insīuteā. He means ( of course, that the judge mav be in6ult«d, but the īan eannoi be so careful of iudgos as to promise to t)rotect them īroni rhsult. 'the now: bill undertakes to iake eaio ofthej courts and let tlie take care of, themselveā, and tb.nt whole aim aml , .■ tl o statute' regarding contempt of courF. OkronicU. I