We Peasants are told to obey our Masters
On Monday, US District Judge Charles Kornmann fulminated for nearly an hour at the courthouse in Aberdeen, as Justice Department lawyers and two of the Marshals he wants criminally prosecuted took notes.
“This was such an outrageous thing to do,” the judge reportedly said, according to the Washington Post, referring to the incident last month when a female deputy refused to tell him if she was vaccinated – and took the three defendants with her when Kornmann ordered her to leave the courtroom.
“When you move someone against their will, that's kidnapping,” Kornmann said. “I don't care who you are.”
“Nothing like this that we could find has ever been done in this country. If it is the marshals’ position that they can override court orders, they are badly mistaken,” he added.
Kornmann wants obstruction of justice and criminal contempt charges levied – not against the female deputy, but against the Marshals Service chief of staff John Kilgallon in Washington, DC; as well as Daniel Mosteller, the marshal for the District of South Dakota and his chief deputy Stephen Houghtaling. He gave the federal prosecutor until Friday to do so, or he would appoint a prosecutor who will. The trial date is already set: September 13.
The feud goes back to March, when Kornmann sent a letter to the Marshals demanding to know if the people working in his courtroom were vaccinated.
“We are not talking about politics or conspiracy theories. We are talking about science and protecting all of us who serve the public here as well as the jurors, lawyers and parties who come to this building,” the judge had written. “If you are refusing to take the vaccines, I want to know that so I can decide what further action is required on my part.”
“I had always thought that the principal responsibilities of the Marshals Service was the protection of the federal judiciary,” Kornmann added. “As it stands now, they could well be the most dangerous people in the courtroom.”
Born in 1937, Kornmann was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton in 1995, after 30 years in private practice in Aberdeen. Between 1963 and 1965, he was the executive secretary of the South Dakota Democratic Party.
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