Controversial Bush judge broke ethics law

A Salon/CIR investigation reveals that Terrence Boyle, a key circuit court nominee touted by the White House and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, ruled in multiple cases involving corporations in which he held investments.

Editor's note: This report is part of an ongoing series by Salon and the Center for Investigative Reporting scrutinizing the records of Bush judicial nominees. Read the rest of the series here.

By Will Evans

Read more: George W. Bush, Politics, Jesse Helms, News, Ethics, Bush Judges

AP Photo/Dennis Cook

Judge Terrence Boyle appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 3, 2005.

May 1, 2006 | Starting in 2002, Terrence W. Boyle, a longtime federal district court judge in North Carolina, presided over a lawsuit against General Electric, in which the corporation stood accused of illegally denying disability benefits to a long-standing employee. Deep into the case, on Jan. 15, 2004, Judge Boyle bought stock in General Electric, according to a review of his financial filings. Two months later, he made his ruling: Boyle shot down the plaintiff's claims to long-term and pension disability benefits, granting him only a fraction of the money in short-term compensation for a debilitating mental condition.

Boyle, 60, a controversial Bush nominee strongly opposed by Democrats and liberals as a staunch foe of civil rights, is on the verge of joining one of the country's highest courts. An investigation by Salon and the Center for Investigative Reporting has revealed that Boyle apparently violated federal law prohibiting judicial conflicts of interest -- not only in the G.E. case, but in many instances since his nomination by President Bush five years ago.

Bush nominated Boyle in 2001 to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va. Senate Democrats have blocked confirmation of the one-time Jesse Helms staffer, though his conflicts of interest on the bench have not come to light until now. Senate Republicans pushed Boyle through the Judiciary Committee last summer. Now, with the full-throated backing of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the White House, Boyle appears to be headed for the final stage of the process -- a full Senate vote that could come soon and may reignite partisan warfare that in 2005 led to threats of a "nuclear option" to wipe out filibustering of judicial nominees. Frist reportedly aims to use a fight over Boyle and other controversial nominees to fire up conservative voters and help fill campaign coffers heading into congressional elections this November.

Early in his nomination process in 2001, Boyle wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to its routine questionnaire: "I will avoid any conflict of interest, potential conflict of interest, or appearance of conflict of interest. I am disqualified from presiding over, or being involved with, any litigation involving any party with whom I might have any financial interest."

At the very time Boyle typed up that pledge of integrity, however, he was in the middle of a case involving Quintiles Transnational, a pharmaceutical services company in which he reported stock holdings, and on whose behalf he had been issuing favorable rulings.

In fact, since his May 2001 nomination, Boyle has issued orders in at least nine cases that involved five different corporations in which he reported stock holdings, according to financial and court documents. In most of the cases, Boyle ruled in favor of the companies in which he had financial interests -- though his participation was a violation of the law regardless of how he ruled. Federal law and the official Code of Conduct for U.S. judges explicitly prohibit judges from sitting on such cases -- no matter how small their stock holdings -- in order to ensure public trust in the judicial system. From 1999 to 2004 (the years that Boyle's financial disclosure forms are currently available), he broke the rules in at least one case per year. Boyle presided as chief judge of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of North Carolina during those years.

"It's a pretty egregious example of a judge disregarding the brightest-line rule of judicial ethics," said Doug Kendall, executive director of Community Rights Counsel, a nonprofit public-interest law firm in Washington that works to expose ethical conflicts of judges.

Professor Leslie W. Abramson, a judicial ethics expert at the University of Louisville's law school who reviewed Boyle's record, said it shows at least a pattern of negligence, if not one "heading toward intentional disregard" of federal law. "Judge Boyle's conduct," Abramson said, "places his own and the judiciary's integrity and reputation at risk."

Boyle did not return repeated phone calls to his office requesting comment. He also did not respond to a letter, delivered April 19, detailing the cases at issue and asking for specific explanation.

None of the lawyers and plaintiffs interviewed by Salon had any idea about Boyle's conflicts in their cases. Martha Bursell, the widow of the General Electric employee, Ken Bursell, who ended up in Boyle's court, was surprised and outraged to learn the judge had purchased G.E. stock.

"Why could he get away with doing it?" she asked in a phone interview from her home in Indian Trail, N.C.

In March 2004, the same month Boyle ruled in the G.E. case, he also ruled in favor of Midway Airlines in a bankruptcy case. At that time, Boyle owned stock in Midway in a trust account. (The stock was basically worthless because of the bankruptcy, though he still listed it as a financial investment.) Boyle's ruling was later partially reversed on appeal by the 4th Circuit Court. One of the Democrats' common criticisms of Boyle is that he has been reversed on appeal at an unusually high rate, though his supporters dispute that.

Kendall, who also reviewed Boyle's records, said there's not enough money involved to conclude that Boyle made any rulings for personal financial gain. All of the stock holdings at issue were valued below the $15,000 mark according to his financial disclosure forms, and many were worth substantially less. But, Kendall said, the violations are especially glaring because he committed them as a circuit court nominee. "You would think he would be particularly careful at that point," Kendall said, "and apparently he has not been."

Professor Monroe Freedman, an ethics expert at the Hofstra University School of Law, said Boyle's conflicts of interest alone should prevent his confirmation to the nation's second highest bench. "If they're going to let people get by and confirm people who have this kind of background, why should anybody then be surprised when we have a federal bench with judges on it that engage in unethical conduct?" Freedman asked. "He is disregarding the law. I'm appalled that he got past the Judiciary Committee." Freedman added that given Boyle's record, if the Senate votes to confirm him, "they communicate the message that the disqualification statute doesn't matter."

Next page: Frist's plans to "throw a little red meat to the base"