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Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling companies

Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

jallman said:
No, and in fact, in looking at the report, he owned the stocks in 2008, it isn't even clear if he still owns them or not, and his stake in each company was in the "less than $15k" range.

He has no need to recuse himself.
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It isn't clear that he doesn't either, so the potential impropriety remains. 15k is a lot of money to me and he had at least 4 sets of potential conflict or as much as 60k. That seems enough to be concerned about. Plus, if you can't be sure if he still owns it, as you say, how can you be sure he doesn't own more by now?
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan


When you are making $170,000 plus a year and have a large financial portfolio worth what I would assume is a lot more than $60,000, it is not really a substantial sum of money.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan


FWIW, the way that these disclosure forms work is that they require you to disclose the value of your investments only as a range. When it says "under $15,000," that could (and where forms list dozens of companies, frequently does) mean that the amount being held is rather trivial.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan


Anyone who has any investment portfolio recognizes that this isn't even an issue. 15k in any one publicly traded company isn't even a half a percent stake in the company. It isn't even a 10th of a percent and most companies wouldn't even be 100th of a percent. I think it was RightinNYC who pointed out a valid point here: he only stands to make or lose a few hundred dollars and that's even if his decision were to affect the stock price within a vacuum absent all other market forces.

So no, this is a non-issue to anyone who understands how an investment portfolio is made up. Move along people, nothing to see here.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

The phrase "grasping at straws" comes to mind on this thread.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

RightinNYC said:
From the other thread:



Edit: If you look at the dude's disclosure, he had stated positions in 125 different companies across every industry in the country.
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Then he has to retire as he could never hear a case in which he didn't have an interest.

[/sarcasm]
 
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Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

As others have mentioned, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has a stock portfolio and doesn't have some amount of stocks in oil.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

I guess this judge should never hear a case related to anything energy, huh?
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

rivrrat said:
As others have mentioned, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has a stock portfolio and doesn't have some amount of stocks in oil.
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And he sold off his Halliburton stock last year. Darn!
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

In other news this judge goes broke as market tanks.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

American said:
I guess this judge should never hear a case related to anything energy, huh?
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And any gay judge should recuse him or herself when deciding over a case regarding homosexuality.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

VanceMack said:
And any gay judge should recuse him or herself when deciding over a case regarding homosexuality.
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And no judge may rule on a religious case because he either believes or he doesn't...meaning he's biased either way.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

American said:
And no judge may rule on a religious case because he either believes or he doesn't...meaning he's biased either way.
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That does it...lets shut down the courts...go back to the maori method...whoever can throw a spear closest to a ring is right...
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan


Should an openly homosexual judge not recuse himself from the prop. 8 case?
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

Well for those who think the judge is on the take, then all of you here should take a close look at your portfolio's or 401k's etc., you maybe surprise that a portion of your retirement savings is invested in energy. Just because the judge has stock in the energy field doesn't mean he is on the take but, what the judge did was remind the government that it has exceeded it's power. Now that said, a moratorium would have the rigs become idle and with Brazil energy company waiting in the wings to bid on these rigs after George Soro's invested 900 million dollars, who BTW supports Center for American Progress which in turn suggest to the Obama administration on what actions to take. I would say that the Obama administration has much more at stake than this federal judge, Obama should be the one to recuse himself.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

NolaMan said:
When you are making $170,000 plus a year and have a large financial portfolio worth what I would assume is a lot more than $60,000, it is not really a substantial sum of money.
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with that point, the same thing can be said of politicians, including obama.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

Game/Set/Match, well put Delta.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

You guys are focused on the wrong part. Well most of you.

Is it material to his net worth? $15,000 in drilling stocks is sufficient enough to create a conflict of interest if his total net worth is $50,000. I know my firm considers anything over 5% as independence impairment. But considering his pay, 5% would require total net worth of $300,000. So unless he's in real debt problems, this isn't material enough. Let's assume his total financial at risk amount is $30,000. That's $600,000 total net worth to be 5%. That's what, 5 years of pay? I doubt this is material enough to create conflict of interest.
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

More information:

Judge Who Lifted Drill Ban Sold Exxon Shares at Probable Loss - BusinessWeek

Between his last report in 2008 and the time when this case came into existence, the judge had already sold his Transocean and Halliburton investments. Before he issued his ruling on this case, he sold his Exxon shares (at a loss) so as to be completely sure that there would be no indication of impropriety. He's also released his financial information to allay any further fears.

 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

Another baseless liberal thread. At least the left remains consistant.

If the left had a clue about economics they would know that continuing the moratorium would drive up the price of oil and thus the price of oil company stocks. This would have helped any portfolio with oil stocks in it. The left can't fathom that a judge makes the right decision just because it's the right thing to do. What a sad state the left is in today.
 
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Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

Just wondering.....Would the left be upset if the judge had stock in wind and solar and ruled in favor of the moretorium? It seems this judge was right to sell his stock with all the backlash he's getting. Judges are supposed to make rulings on how they interpert the law and not how the rulings might benefit them. Have we reached the point where we can't trust anyone to do the right thing? Not even our judges?
 
Re: Judge who overturned drilling moratorium reported owning stock in drilling compan

WhyteRash said:
with that point, the same thing can be said of politicians, including obama.
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I don't disagree. I have not argued that Obama was "bought off" due to his holdings or anything of the nature either.
 
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