Ex-AG Candidate Loses Free Speech Appeal over Corruption Claim
A disbarred lawyer who once ran for Connecticut attorney general has lost an appeal that contended she had a free speech right to accuse three trial judges of having the “stark appearance of judicial corruption.” As a result, she is now twice disbarred.
Nancy Burton, already disbarred in an unrelated case, had made the corruption accusations in a 1995 letter to Connecticut’s chief justice. In a Jan. 4 opinion, the Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed the new disbarment for making an unsupported claim.
Burton had submitted only an affidavit to back her accusations, although she claimed she had “witnesses, documentation and transcripts.” Much of the basis for Burton’s accusation, it turned out, were rulings the judges had made against Burton, the opinion says.
The court said that reasonable restrictions on attorney speech do not violate the Constitution. Burton ran for attorney general on the Green Party ticket in 2006 and received more than 17,000 votes, according to an October story in News Times.
