Judge Robert (Bob) Schwartz and the Judicial Standard Commission

Earlier this year Judge Bob Schwartz took a leave due to medical problems. He was concerned with a new medication he was taking and how it was affecting his ability to be a judge. He reported himself to the judicial standard commission because he was unwilling to continue with his job because he did not want to settle for less then appropriate abilities and decision making capacity in his courtroom.

The first thing that the general public should be concerned with is how will this affect the behavior of future judges and their willingness to self report when a medical condition is affecting their ability to do their job correctly.

We want our judges to have the type of ethics that would encourage them to self report without fear of losing their jobs or having to face disciplinary measures for them being human. We have all faced medical problems in the past at work that have affected our ability to perform our jobs at the desired level so why should judges be any different?

None of our Second District Court Judges are young men or women because we the public demand experience in the law from our judges. With age comes basic medical problems. Inexperience could and would do far more harm to the voting public then a older judge with high ethical standards, years of experience in the law and yes the medical problems that come with age.

I hope that the Supreme Court with their hearing aides and other medical problems that come with age will take into account the fact that Judge Schwartz had the ethical standards to self report himself when a problem with his health arose that could affect his ability to provide fair and balanced judgments in his courtroom.We should all be asking the Judicial Standard Commission how this is an issue that would require disciple and not praise for doing the right thing?