#JYDGE BOYLE ON ALLY FULL#
#JYDGE BOYLE ON ALLY CODE#

case, he also ruled in favor of Midway Airlines in a bankruptcy case. In March 2004, the same month Boyle ruled in the G.E. 'Why could he get away with doing it?' she asked in a phone interview from her home in Indian Trail, N.C. Martha Bursell, the widow of the General Electric employee, Ken Bursell, who ended up in Boyle's court, was surprised and outraged to learn the judge had purchased G.E. None of the lawyers and plaintiffs interviewed by Salon had any idea about Boyle's conflicts in their cases. He also did not respond to a letter, delivered April 19, detailing the cases at issue and asking for specific explanation. 'Judge Boyle's conduct,' Abramson said, 'places his own and the judiciary's integrity and reputation at risk.'īoyle did not return repeated phone calls to his office requesting comment. Abramson, a judicial ethics expert at the University of Louisville's law school who reviewed Boyle's record, said it shows at least a pattern of negligence, if not one 'heading toward intentional disregard' of federal law.

'It's a pretty egregious example of a judge disregarding the brightest-line rule of judicial ethics,' said Doug Kendall, executive director of Community Rights Counsel, a nonprofit public-interest law firm in Washington that works to expose ethical conflicts of judges. District Court of the Eastern District of North Carolina during those years. Boyle presided as chief judge of the U.S. From 1999 to 2004 (the years that Boyle's financial disclosure forms are currently available), he broke the rules in at least one case per year. judges explicitly prohibit judges from sitting on such cases - no matter how small their stock holdings - in order to ensure public trust in the judicial system.

#JYDGE BOYLE ON ALLY CODE#

Federal law and the official Code of Conduct for U.S. In most of the cases, Boyle ruled in favor of the companies in which he had financial interests - though his participation was a violation of the law regardless of how he ruled. In fact, since his May 2001 nomination, Boyle has issued orders in at least nine cases that involved five different corporations in which he reported stock holdings, according to financial and court documents. I am disqualified from presiding over, or being involved with, any litigation involving any party with whom I might have any financial interest.'Īt the very time Boyle typed up that pledge of integrity, however, he was in the middle of a case involving Quintiles Transnational, a pharmaceutical services company in which he reported stock holdings, and on whose behalf he had been issuing favorable rulings. Frist reportedly aims to use a fight over Boyle and other controversial nominees to fire up conservative voters and help fill campaign coffers heading into congressional elections this November.Įarly in his nomination process in 2001, Boyle wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to its routine questionnaire: 'I will avoid any conflict of interest, potential conflict of interest, or appearance of conflict of interest.

#JYDGE BOYLE ON ALLY FULL#

Now, with the full-throated backing of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the White House, Boyle appears to be headed for the final stage of the process - a full Senate vote that could come soon and may reignite partisan warfare that in 2005 led to threats of a 'nuclear option' to wipe out filibustering of judicial nominees. Senate Republicans pushed Boyle through the Judiciary Committee last summer. Senate Democrats have blocked confirmation of the one-time Jesse Helms staffer, though his conflicts of interest on the bench have not come to light until now. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va. case, but in many instances since his nomination by President Bush five years ago.īush nominated Boyle in 2001 to the 4th U.S. An investigation by Salon and the Center for Investigative Reporting has revealed that Boyle apparently violated federal law prohibiting judicial conflicts of interest - not only in the G.E. Two months later, he made his ruling: Boyle shot down the plaintiff's claims to long-term and pension disability benefits, granting him only a fraction of the money in short-term compensation for a debilitating mental condition.īoyle, 60, a controversial Bush nominee strongly opposed by Democrats and liberals as a staunch foe of civil rights, is on the verge of joining one of the country's highest courts. 15, 2004, Judge Boyle bought stock in General Electric, according to a review of his financial filings. Boyle, a longtime federal district court judge in North Carolina, presided over a lawsuit against General Electric, in which the corporation stood accused of illegally denying disability benefits to a long-standing employee.

Jydge boyle on ally