THE ROBING ROOM

Be still, my beating heart! A judge with some semblance of integrity -- a rarity in these troubled times. This confession, as published in yesterday's WashPost, is worth its weight in gold: '[Kane] sat on the 10th Circuit Judicial Council when the first complaint about a judge came up for consideration: A district judge was trying to coerce counsel into establishing a library on product liability cases in honor of the judge. Judge Kane's e-mail is worth quoting at length. He voted for discipline. The vote was 3 to 3, 'and so the Chief Judge voted against sustaining the complaint because it was the first such complaint and he thought a close vote was too slender a reed upon which to proceed. As we were leaving the meeting, one of the judges who had voted to dismiss collared me and said, 'John, think about it. The next time it could be you or me. We've got to stick together.''