Posted on
December 21, 2009 in
Harris County Civil Court at Law Number 1 Judge R. Jack Cagle sent out this Christmas card, paid for with campaign funds:
I’m not on Cagle’s Christmas list, but a civil-lawyer friend passed the card on to me, commenting, “Usually when a judge thinks I’m unwise, it’s because of my lack of legal skills, not because I’m a Jew.”
Proselytizing the lawyers who appear before you:
Grievable? Probably not.
Contemptible? Absolutely.
Recusable? I’m betting we’ll find out.
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It’s only offensive because he used campaign funds. Most Jews don’t take offense and I doubt Cagle meant it that way.
Really? “The wise still seek him”?
And the fools have already found him?
The non-Christians might not be the only ones feeling more than a tad insulted.
“Still seek him”? As in, still waiting for the messiah?
Definitely a mixed message in there. How do his opinions read?
I’d be surprised if it was recusable. Politically idiotic on the other hand . . .
Yeah. I’m sure it was a somewhat generic Christmas card. I think the fallout on it will be more political than legal.
I could be wrong.
Wow,
As tough as times are right now, to use campaign funds to send out Christmas cards printed on dead trees just seems like such a waste and misuse of funds. I wonder who paid for the postage? And for a judge who is supposed to be impartial and recognize and uphold the separation between Church and State should not be making such blatant religious representations.
While I am surprised a judge would send out a Christmas Card with campaign funds, I don’t see an expression of Christian faith on a Christian holiday as anything requiring recusal or discipline. It shouldn’t call his impartiality into question. Are judges required to be polytheist or atheists? Is a Muslim or Jew or a Satanist any less likely to view the world through the filter of his religion?
I think it was a poor decision politically, but to imply anything more than that probably says more about your bias than his.
I’d hope not; I think that any religious test is unfortunate, and there’s no reason I can think of why a guy couldn’t be a good judge while also being a believing Christian of many sorts. (Then again, if he takes “judge not, lest ye be judged” too literally, maybe . . )
I think a lot of folks have difficulty taking off some hats when they really should. A guy calling himself Jack Cagle, say, sending out Christmas cards as a guy who happens to be a believing Christian is different than one — even if not sent with campaign funds — from Judge R. Jack Cagle, even without the perhaps reflexive reminder of which particular position he holds. In the former case, I kind of admire the guy for reminding people that he thinks that there’s a religious purpose to the holiday.
So much for my keen eye for the obvious, I guess.
I am a Jew. I have received hundreds of Christmas cards and only a few Hanukkah cards. I always remember the people who go out of their way to send a Hanukkah card, but what kind of person would I be if I let all the hundreds of other cards offend me?
You have to look at the intent of the person sending the card in order to make a judgment of whether the card is offensive. I know Jack Cagle, and if you think this pro-Israel, religiously tolerant man has ever made a decision based on some lawyer’s religion, I’d like to know about it. Until then, I suggest people look within themselves to decide who is really being intolerant here.
Mark Goldberg