Last summer, Shaun King argued that Trump’s racist dog whistles and yacht horns were in and of themselves impeachable. He pointed out that overt racism is a firing offense at just about every reputable employer in this country, in both the public sector and the private sector. That led King to ask—and loudly—how it’s possible for “an entry-level employee at any Fortune 5000 company” to be held to a higher standard than the president of the United States.
Just a few months later, in November, Trump willfully and knowingly called two Jews, a Latina, two blacks and an Arab “savages,” then called one of those Jews “human scum.” In a sane world, this would have been grounds for impeachment. But it wasn’t.
Contrast this with the treatment Mark Tranquilli, a state court judge in Pittsburgh, is getting after he made shockingly racist remarks about a recently acquitted defendant.
The jurist allegedly uttered the racist slur on Jan. 24 during a closed-door meeting with defense attorney Joe Otte and assistant district attorney Ted Dutkowski, Pittsburgh TV station WTAE reported Thursday.
According to the complaint made by Otte, Tranquilli was furious that Otte’s client had been acquitted on drug charges. The judge than berated Dutkowski for a woeful effort screening jurors.
“The judge then said that Ted had made a terrible decision by allowing ‘Aunt Jemima’ on the jury,” reads the complaint. “The juror, Juror No. 4, was a young, black woman who had worn a hair wrap throughout the trial. The judge expressed that he knew Ted was not going to get a conviction from the moment Juror No. 4 was questioned.”
Soon after the complaint was filed, Kim Berkeley Clark, the president judge of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas—the ordinary trial court in Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh—took Tranquilli off ordinary trial duty and restricted him to hearing only summary appeals, or appeals relating to minor offenses such as traffic violations, shoplifting, drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
However, on Thursday, Clark removed Tranquilli from trial duty altogether, reassigning him to administrative duties. Under the circumstances, it’s not likely Tranquilli will be returning to the bench any time soon.
The Pittsburgh NAACP and the Allegheny County Bar Association are already calling for an investigation by the state Judicial Conduct Board. In Pennsylvania, judges can be removed from office by one of two ways. The Judicial Conduct Board can refer a judge to the state Court of Judicial Discipline, or judges can be impeached by the state house and removed by the state senate. One can hope that investigation includes every one of Tranquilli’s cases since he first came to the bench in 2013.
Simply put, Tranquilli is getting the same treatment that Trump should have gotten for his blatantly racist comments in November. One has to wonder—if Tranquilli’s career is on life support for his blatant racism, how is Trump not in the hot seat as well?