In July of 2016, less than four months before the general election, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg trashed President Trump. During an interview with the New York Times, Ginsburg told Adam Liptak, “I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president.” Ginsburg continued, “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”
Ginsburg also recalled something her late husband said about such matters: “Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand.”
For Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg, there were no consequences for her actions. Unfortunately for one anti-Trump judge in Utah he’s not getting off so easily. Perhaps Judge Michael Kwan felt emboldened by Ginsburg’s public criticism of our President, perhaps he believed that he was above the law simply because he was wearing a robe. As it turns out, he was wrong, he’s not above the law and unlike Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg, he is going to pay a price for his behavior.
NBC News reports – A Utah judge has been suspended for six months without pay after he made a series of critical statements about President Donald Trump online and in his courtroom over the past few years.
The Utah Supreme Court filed its court ruling this past week on Judge Michael Kwan’s actions.
Kwan, who has served as a justice court judge in Taylorsville for 20 years, was cited for “improper use of judicial authority and his inappropriate political commentary,” the latter often involving President Trump.
The court noted multiple times when Kwan had provided political comments that criticized Trump, as a presidential candidate in 2016 and as president on his Facebook page and in court.
Three days after the 2016 election, Kwan wrote on Facebook, “Think I’ll go to the shelter to adopt a cat before the President-Elect grabs them all” — a reference to the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump was heard bragging about grabbing women’s genitals without consent.
The court ruling also noted a moment in court that demonstrated the judge’s political leanings and views of the president.
When a defendant said he was praying to get a large tax return in 2017 to pay off his fines and avoid going to jail, Kwan appeared to tell the man he shouldn’t hold his breath because of President Trump.
“Prayer might be the answer,” the judge said, “’cause he just signed an order to start building the wall and he has no money to do that, and so if you think you are going to get taxes back this year, uh, yeah, maybe, maybe not. But don’t worry, there is a tax cut for the wealthy, so if you make over $500,000 you’re getting a tax cut.”
