Judge has acted strangely before too, in a case involving an Indian plaintiff.
AB Wire
A federal judge in Texas, who has been in the past criticized for his disdain for Indians and Indian Americans, is again in the news for berating an Indian American lawyer and for calling the Department of Justice with a curse word.
A transcript in the open now about U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes follows his earlier ridiculing the Department of Justice for its “ineptitude” ahead of a terrorism trial. The transcript it appears is even before that.
A transcript from an earlier pre-trial conference in the case has emerged that shows just how deep Judge Hughes’s disdain for the Justice Department runs, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The transcript, first obtained by The Washington Post, features a remarkable dressing down of a DOJ counterterrorism lawyer based in Washington, D.C., Kashyap Patel, who had helped bring the case and had flown in to monitor its progress.
It became quickly apparent that the lawyer, Kashyap Patel, wasn’t welcomed.
“Who is this Patel guy?” Judge Hughes asked two Texas federal prosecutors before Patel arrives in his chambers.
“He’ll be reviewing all of our work. He will be in every chamber meeting that we have with you and reporting back to D.C. what goes on,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ralph Imperato, according to the transcript, which continues:
THE COURT: Is [Patel] going to make an appearance in the case?
- IMPERATO: He filed his notice of appearance.
THE COURT: When?
- IMPERATO: He did it on my account. He — a couple of weeks ago, he filed it on my account.
THE COURT: Don’t let those son of b—-es use your account. And put that in the record.
When Patel later entered his chambers, according to the transcript, he explained that he’s been involved in the case for some time. Judge Hughes then spent the next few minutes berating him. He scolded him first for showing up without a suit and tie and then for showing up at all.
Here are the highlights:
THE COURT: Unless you can articulate what you have to contribute other than being a spy for a bunch of other people who are not contributing to the progress of this case — this case is a discrete thing. It’s not part of any — it may be part of some global something, but that’s — whatever global thing you’re talking about will not be part of this case.
- PATEL: I understand, sir.
THE COURT: When did you get to Houston?
- PATEL: The plane landed about 2:00 p.m.ish this afternoon.
THE COURT: If you want to be a lawyer, dress like a lawyer.
- PATEL: I will, sir.
THE COURT: Act like a lawyer.
THE COURT: So, what is the utility to me and to the people of America to have you fly down here at their expense, eat at their expense, and stay at their expense when there are plenty of capable people over there, in this room plus over there? You don’t add a bit of value, do you?
- PATEL: I mean –
….
THE COURT: You’re just one more non-essential employee from Washington. And the first thing you’ll start doing is telling them how to do it and telling me how to do it because you’re from DC. I don’t need three lawyers on this case who have no independent utility. If there’s some easy part, they can get some new person they got over there and let them do it. This case is difficult enough without Washington just sending unnecessary people down here to watch what they do in the provinces.
The Post also observes that Judge Hughes has been a controversial figure: Hughes, 74, is something of a maverick, known for courtroom outbursts and comments about race that have led some plaintiffs to call on him to recuse himself. At a pretrial conference in a discrimination case involving an Indian American, for instance, he discussed “Adolf Hitler’s use of swastikas, the origin of Caucasians and the futility of diversity programs at universities,” according to a report in the Texas Observer.
The plaintiff, Jitendra Shah, asked an appeals court to remove Hughes for bias. In his defense, Hughes wrote that “the court’s asserted hostility to Indians would surprise its immigrant or first-generation Indian doctors, friends, law clerk, and interns.”