► Columbus Dispatch - 05/12/05 - Chief Justice Thomas Moyer created own "facts' to skirt the law Print

Columbus Dispatch - Letters to Editor

 

Moyer created own ‘facts’ to skirt the law
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer is facing charges before the Ohio Elections Commission because of a complaint filed by "judicial watchdog" David Palmer ("2 Supreme Court justices dodge the watchdog’s bite," Dispatch article, April 29).
The charge is that Moyer solicited and accepted campaign contributions from state employees — retired judges who work on cases assigned to them by Moyer.
Moyer knows and does not deny that he is prohibited from soliciting and accepting campaign funds from state employees. Instead he came up with the defense that retired judges are not state employees. Unfortunately for Moyer, these retired judges absolutely are state employees. They are paid by the state, they are eligible for state retirement and court cases have stated they are state employees.
The next declarations from Moyer will likely be that donkeys can fly, the Earth is flat, and Elvis is really alive (but not a state employee).
This is the classic example of a judge ignoring the facts and the law and creating his own set of pseudo facts and law to fit his desired outcome. If this does not work, then at the next hearing I think Moyer will just say, "Hey, look over there! The sky is falling," and then run like the wind.
DENNIS CARON
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