For the past decade or so, not a single case of mine has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Robert N. Chatigny. That’s because he’s filled out a form, deposited it in the clerk of the court’s office, and provided notice that he has a conflict of some sort involving me. I am assuming it’s just that he doesn’t like me, as I tried cases before him long before he decided he could not do his job with me in his courtroom.
Half a dozen years or so after my banishment, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for any information about why the judge had shut the door to his courtroom to me. Wouldn’t you know it, such documents are exempt from disclosure. So I muddle along in the courts, wondering what this super secret document says about me, offended, modestly, that one of the privileges of a lifetime appointment is the power to hide your pettiness deep in a clerk’s file.
