Free Republic

State Supreme Justice Richard Sanders, facing two opponents in the Aug. 17 primary election, is once again defending his judicial record as he seeks a fourth term on the bench...painting him as an agenda-driven judge who is incapable of being impartial. Wiggins points to Sanders' admonishment for improper judicial conduct in one case and an alleged conflict of interest in another. Sanders voted in favor of defendants more than 94 percent of the time in over 350 cases regardless of the facts. And Wiggins said Sanders voted 90 percent of the time for no or lighter discipline against sanctioned attorneys...

Sanders should have recused himself from case, ethics experts say. Justice Richard Sanders, who sued the state to get documents about himself, could be awarded much more money because of a ruling he wrote recently for the state Supreme Court. Sanders' lawyers say new legal guidelines -- ones the justice himself created -- mean he should get far more than the $18,112 he was already awarded in his lawsuit... Legal-ethics experts say Sanders probably should not have participated in the high court case because of its similarity to his own. "You shouldn't act as a judge if you stand to...

Richard Sanders is being called an impetuous crank who ought to be punished for his boorish behavior. Maybe so. It won't change this: He is definitely onto something. Sanders is the state Supreme Court justice who couldn't take it any more. About a week ago, he was back in Washington, D.C., listening to a speech by President Bush's attorney general, Michael Mukasey, when he snapped. "Tyrant! You are a tyrant!" Sanders yelled at Mukasey, then walked out.

A special panel of the Washington Supreme Court made up of nine substitute judges reprimanded one of the court’s justices yesterday for visiting a facility that holds sexually violent predators. The panel ruled that the justice, Richard B. Sanders, had “created an appearance of partiality” by questioning inmates and accepting documents from them at the McNeil Island Special Commitment Center on a visit there in January 2003. The center holds sex offenders who have completed their criminal sentences but who the courts have found are likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence. A case concerning the constitutionality of...