◆ SpookStack

94 Nos. 77-1698, 77-1210 & 77-1370 mosphere of intimidation generated from the bench made an effective presentation of the evidence against Defendants difficult, if not impossible. The Court’s arbitrary and ever-shifting rules made cross-examination of Defendants a perilous task, with Summary Contempt lurking behind each ques- tion. Merely rising to object was fraught with danger and likely to evoke a strong rebuke from the Court. Plaintiffs’ counsel were confronted with a hostile, powerful adversary in the District Court; the damage inflicted on Plaintiffs as a result of the intimidation and belittlement of Plaintiffs’ counsel by the District Court of itself requires reversal. . . . Both in specific instances, and as a whole, the court’s charge to the jury revealed its bias in favor of the defendants, and constituted reversible error. . . . He [the judge] used his judicial power as well as the resources and bullying of defense counsel to harass and attack the Plaintiffs when they attempted to recuse him. [Footnotes omitted.] I do not mean to suggest that the multi-page portions of the brief from which the above extracts were taken is not replete with specific instances purporting to show the asserted unbridled bias and prejudice of the trial judge. A close analysis of these supportive instances reflects, however, that many of them pertained to rulings on evidentiary matters as to which the trial judge is accorded substantial discretion. Any trial lawyer of any competence is aware that he doesn’t prevail on every ruling of the court but that his failure to do so is no ground for a legitimate claim of bias and prejudice. Such a lawyer also is sufficiently perceptive to realize the scope of the judge’s rulings and that to attempt another tack on the same forbidden subject may well occasion a rebuke. Nevertheless, the Anderson plaintiffs’ trial counsel pursued such a course and then when rebuked claimed this to be another example of the unfairness of the judge. I find the claim of unfair limita- tion of the presentation of their case to be virtually frivolous. A year and a half of trial and 87,000 pages of testimony scarcely is supportive of a restrictive eviden- tiary limitation. Nor can I find any real indication in