Until recently, it had been years since the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council had sanctioned a federal judge. As of yesterday, the Council has now sanctioned two judges in less than three months.
We already know about the case of Galveston-based U.S. District Judge Sam Kent (previous posts here) — the Council recently deferred further disciplinary action for 90 days in that case pending the outcome of a Department of Justice investigation.
And yesterday, in this strongly-worded order, the Judicial Council recommended that the U.S. Judicial Council refer New Orleans-based U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr to Congress for impeachment (Peter Lattman’s WSJ Law Blog post first reported on the order). The Fifth Circuit panel’s proposed impeachment referral is based on findings that Judge Porteous engaged in the following misconduct:

Filing “numerous false statements under oath during his and his wife’s Chapter 13 bankruptcy, including filing the petition under a false name.” This copy of Judge Porteous’ chapter 13 case docket reflects that his case was ultimately administered under the name of “Gabriel T. Porteous.” However, the original petition in the case reflects that he filed the case under the name “G.T. Ortous” and then filed an amended petition about ten days after the original petition in which he corrected the name to “Gabriel T. Porteous.”
Hiding assets from his bankruptcy estate, failing to list all creditors and not scheduling in his bankruptcy case creditors holding gambling-related claims against him;
Getting short-term credit from casinos after a bankruptcy judge ordered him to obtain prior approval of the court or the chapter 13 trustee before incurring any debt;
Making unauthorized and undisclosed payments to “preferred creditors” during his chapter 13 case and engaging in fraudulent conduct with regard to the claim of Regions Bank;
Accepting “gifts and things of value” from lawyers with cases before him;
Denying a motion to recuse in a case without revealing to the parties that he had a “history of financial relationships” with at least one attorney for the movant; and
Failing to disclose gifts from attorneys on his annual judicial financial disclosure statements for 1994-2000 and failing to disclose debt that should have been on the 2000 statement.

The Council’s order was signed by Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Edith Jones, who is one of the leading bankruptcy law experts on the Fifth Circuit. The Council ordered that, for the time being, Judge Porteous will not be assigned any bankruptcy cases or appeals, or cases in which the United States is a party. He is authorized to continue handling other civil cases and administrative duties until such time as he is required to dedicate his time to the defense of any further proceedings against him.
The Judicial Council’s order is actually the culmination of at least two investigations of Judge Porteous over the past several years. The Judicial Council’s investigation was prompted by information gathered during the FBI’s “Operation Wrinkled Robe,” which was an investigation of the relationship between Jefferson Parish, Louisiana state judges and New Orleans bail bondsman, Louis Marcotte. Judge Porteous served as a Jefferson Parish state judge before President Clinton appointed him to the federal bench in 1994. Marcotte was convicted of racketeering charges as a result of the Operation Wrinkled Robe probe several years ago and is currently in prison. Judge Porteous has not been charged with a crime as a result of Operation Wrinkled Robe.
In 2003, Judge Porteous recused himself from all civil cases involving the federal government and all criminal cases after a relative of Marcotte alleged that Marcotte had paid for Judge Porteous’ car repairs and arranged other favors for the Judge. In May, 2006, Judge Porteous took a medical leave after the sudden death of his wife in December, 2005. He returned to the bench in June of this year.
Peter Henning provides this typically insightful blog post on the legal issues raised by the Judicial Council’s order.