Montana Federal Judge Cebull Retires over Racist Obama Email

Here. Via. News coverage. From the CA9:

In March 2012, U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, District of Montana, wrote to Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Kozinski and asked that an inquiry be conducted as to whether Judge Cebull’s transmittal of an email containing racially offensive content constituted misconduct under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act. 28 U.S.C. § 351 et seq.

Judge Cebull’s self-filed complaint and another were referred to a Special Committee which conducted a thorough and extensive investigation, interviewed numerous witnesses, considered voluminous documentation, including emails, and conducted an interview with Judge Cebull. The Special Committee’s Report was submitted to the Judicial Council in December 2012. On March 15, 2013 the Judicial Council issued an Order and Memorandum. Judicial Conduct Rule 20(f). Pursuant to Judicial Conduct Rules 22 and 24(a), the Order and Memorandum remains confidential during the appeal period.

At this time, Judge Cebull has submitted his retirement letter, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 371(a), effective May 3, 2013. The Council will have no further statement on this matter until Judge Cebull’s retirement is effective.

We posted about this last year here.

Judge Cebull’s Mistake, Federal Judicial Nominations, and Tribal Courts

The flap over Judge Cebull’s email is controversial.

But Judge Cebull’s record as a tribal court judge raises a completely different question for me. How many federal court judges previously served as a tribal court judges? Does it help or hurt their nominations?

Sen. Leahy mentioned Judge Cebull’s record as a tribal court judge in passing, and in a positive light. See the hearing testimony in this PDF at page 45, the first page of the document.

Tribal court experience didn’t seem to help Arvo Mikkanen’s nomination, unfortunately.

Does anyone know about other examples?