Word: youngdahl
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...crowded courtroom last week, U.S. District Judge Luther Youngdahl listened quietly to an unprecedented attack. Lawyers often accuse judges of prejudice against the defense, but it was unheard of for a federal prosecutor to accuse a federal judge of "personal bias and prejudice . . . against the Government." The charge grew out of the case of Owen Lattimore, who once exerted much influence on American policies in China and who has since been accused of promoting Communism. Last year Judge Youngdahl dismissed four perjury indictments against Lattimore. Last week, with new indictments coming up for trial, U.S. Attorney Leo Rover looked Judge...
...good many attorneys, fascinated by the issue, had gathered for the hearing. Sternly, Prosecutor Rover accused Judge Youngdahl of "astounding language" in his 1953 opinion (which cautioned against requiring "conformity in thought"). "The Government is not trying to put Lattimore's mind in a straitjacket," roared Rover. "We are trying to convict him for lying under oath." Youngdahl's 1953 opinion was "a gratuitous insult to the Government," he declared. "You picked out what was favorable to the defendant and left out what was unfavorable. I want a judge with an open mind and not a judge...
...Government last week accused Federal Judge Luther W. Youngdahl of personal prejudice in favor of Owen Lattimore, and asked the jurist to disqualify himself from the bench during Lattimore's forthcoming trial on charges of perjury. In the past such action has come only after evidences of exceptionally flagrant abuse, yet the Government's case against Youngdalh is a flimsy one. Of Youngdahl has a bias, it apparently did not affect his judgment, for in dismissing these charges he was upheld by an overwhelming 8 to 1 majority in the Court of Appeals. The two counts this court reinstated were...
...Youngdahl has never shown that he is nor qualified to hear the Lattimore case. He dismissed than indictment last year because he considered the counts too vague for prosecution, not for any judgment of Lattimore's innocence or guilt. Youngdahl himself is a man with an impeccable record of past public service; regardless of his personal feelings about Lattimore's guilt, it is hardly likely that he would let them influence the wholly legal decision of whether or not the counts against the Far East expert are concrete...
...Government succeeds in preventing Youngdahl from judging the new counts or appeals the case on charges of bias, it will in effect be deciding the issue himself. For a future court, making the same decision, might lay itself open to similar accusations. Indeed, if carried to its logical extreme, this lack of confidence in the courts could undermine the whole judicial system...