On Monday, August 26, 2024, Reuters reported that the chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was cleared of allegations that she failed to investigate a concerning incident in a district court hearing.
Mary Murguia has served as chief judge of the 9th Circuit, known as the largest circuit court in the country. In July, a complaint was filed against Judge Murguia following an editorial published in the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, a legal newspaper based in Los Angeles. The editorial was critical of Murguia for allegedly not launching a probe into U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson’s detention of attorney Marina Lang in his courtroom last November 2021.
According to court filings, Judge Wilson held Lang in contempt during a civil trademark trial and ordered her to be handcuffed, shackled, and taken to a jail cell in the basement of the courthouse for several hours. Lang’s lawyers said she was placed in a dirty cell without windows and was left freezing. While a three-judge panel later upheld a $3,510 contempt fine against Lang in January 2023, they did not address her arrest.
The editorial accused Murguia of failing to investigate Wilson’s “barbarous treatment” of Lang, despite the newspaper emailing Murguia to urge an inquiry. This lack of action called into question Murguia’s fitness as chief judge, it argued.
However, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the 9th Circuit cleared Murguia of any misconduct in her decision. Wardlaw, who reviewed the complaint instead of Murguia, found that Murguia had no memory of receiving the email about Lang’s detention. Murguia also was not aware of the 2021 contempt proceedings until another judge informed her about the editorial in June.
Though Murguia was cleared of wrongdoing, Wardlaw noted that Murguia has since launched an inquiry into the incident in Judge Wilson’s courtroom. Lang’s attorney Dan Lawton welcomed this investigation, calling Wilson’s actions “medieval.” Neither Murguia nor Wilson provided comment on the matter to Reuters.
Source: Reuters
