There was once a Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. He was one hell of a judge. While putatively Republican, he was as progressive as can be, strong on civil rights and personal freedoms. A New York kind of Republican, if you get my drift.
And then one day, we find out that the guy went nuts. Bonkers. He dressed up in a cowboy hat, pretended to be a private investigator and made harassing phone calls to an ex. It couldn’t possibly be true. Could it?
And 15 years later, the former Chief Judge is readmitted to the bar.
Welcome to the wacky world of Sol Wachtler. He really was a great judge. Not a good judge, but a great one. And then he went off the deep end and he was gone. New York has been the worse for it.
It isn’t clear what happened. He says its the combination of arrogance and mental illness. Makes sense. But it really doesn’t matter now, as chances are slim that they will let him back into the judges robing room.
Should Sol Wachtler have been let back in the door? If he’s cleaned up his problems, then he should. Certainly, there are few who are better lawyers than the former Chief Judge. Can you see him arguing about what the court meant back when? What trial judge is going to tell Sol he doesn’t know that law. That’s a lot of legal clout, and there aren’t many around who can do that.
It’s unclear what Sol will do with his newfound right to practice law. He’s not a kid anymore, so he may not do much of anything (except perhaps make a little rain?). But in any event, I can well remember the Wachtler days in Albany, and I miss them. Did I mention that he was a great judge? There aren’t too many of those around, so we should be nice to the few we have. And I’m just fine with being nice to Sol Wachtler. Welcome back.
And then one day, we find out that the guy went nuts. Bonkers. He dressed up in a cowboy hat, pretended to be a private investigator and made harassing phone calls to an ex. It couldn’t possibly be true. Could it?
And 15 years later, the former Chief Judge is readmitted to the bar.
Welcome to the wacky world of Sol Wachtler. He really was a great judge. Not a good judge, but a great one. And then he went off the deep end and he was gone. New York has been the worse for it.
It isn’t clear what happened. He says its the combination of arrogance and mental illness. Makes sense. But it really doesn’t matter now, as chances are slim that they will let him back into the judges robing room.
Should Sol Wachtler have been let back in the door? If he’s cleaned up his problems, then he should. Certainly, there are few who are better lawyers than the former Chief Judge. Can you see him arguing about what the court meant back when? What trial judge is going to tell Sol he doesn’t know that law. That’s a lot of legal clout, and there aren’t many around who can do that.
It’s unclear what Sol will do with his newfound right to practice law. He’s not a kid anymore, so he may not do much of anything (except perhaps make a little rain?). But in any event, I can well remember the Wachtler days in Albany, and I miss them. Did I mention that he was a great judge? There aren’t too many of those around, so we should be nice to the few we have. And I’m just fine with being nice to Sol Wachtler. Welcome back.
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If it were simply the combination of arrogance and mental illness, they would all be harassing their exes while wearing cowboy hats (not that there’s anything wrong with that . . .).