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Well-deserved support
Elsewhere on this page, a defense of the county’s judges appears, bearing the signature of the Rappahannock County Bar Association. We agree with the sentiments expressed in its letter.
Certainly, not everyone will agree with all the decisions which a judge makes. And those who lose will be angry over the outcome. In many instances, hot passions probably were the cause of the principals ending up in court in the first place.
Judges make their decisions in the cool light of a legal tradition which has evolved over literally hundreds of years. Those who have spent considerable time sitting in court, for whatever reason, have heard lawyers and judges cite case law which dates to the founding of the Republic.
Theirs is not an easy job, and their decisions are not always easy to understand. Sometimes, they leave both parties dissatisfied.
But it is important to remember that judges base their decisions on evidence presented during trial of the case. The admissibility of evidence is governed by clear-cut rules of law.
They cannot, and should not, base their judicial judgements on allegations made which cannot be proved, or which have no bearing on the case at hand. To do so would be an invitation to destroy our carefully crafted legal system.
In some cases, that careful crafting allows a seemingly guilty individual to go free on a technicality. But those same protections are in place in case an innocent person is falsely accused.
As the Bar Association states, judges have a demanding and often thankless job. It is unfair and unwarranted to make that job more difficult by criticisms which would not stand the test of legal admissibility, and to which all judges are forbidden by the judicial canons to reply.
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