Editorial: Conflict in the court
Times Union Editorial Board
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Times Union photo illustration
No doubt you’ve noticed how, in traditional iconography, the figure of Justice wears a cloth tied over her eyes. You never see her, say, squeezing her eyes shut and saying, “Don’t worry, I won’t peek, trust me.” The symbolism here says more than “Justice is blind”; it also says, “Rest assured, we’re making sure she’s impartial.”
In a recent foreclosure case, Janet DiFiore, New York’s chief judge, ruled in favor of clients represented by the law firm Greenberg Traurig. As first reported in the New York Law Journal, there was something Judge DiFiore had not disclosed: She’s a Greenberg Traurig client. The firm is representing her in a lawsuit filed last year over the court system’s move to save money by showing a bunch of senior judges the door.