The Law: Turnabout Trials

The judging of judges is generally a neglected task. Lawyers tend to shun it —at least publicly—because they may later have to appear before the very judge they criticize. Fellow judges are not anxious to question the performance of a colleague, and the press rarely pays attention to any but the most flagrant judicial transgressions. Nonetheless, in three disparate instances at home and abroad, the competence, propriety and qualifications of judges have been called into question:

> Chicago's magistrates have long been known as "precinct captain-judges," meaning that they handle relatively minor judicial...