America’s worst sheriff, Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, has been busy lately facing contempt charges in federal court for blatantly disobeying federal court orders aimed at shutting down his office’s racist policy of profiling Hispanics, which is quite popular with white voters in his county, who have retained him in office for 22 years despite his carnival antics like dressing jail inmates in pink and repeated scandals that have cost taxpayers millions.
But this time he may have gone too far. “Arpaio has a long history of investigating his opponents,” the Associated Press says. “But his latest entanglement in the courts is his toughest test yet after he acknowledged to a judge presiding over his racial-profiling case that his office was behind a secret investigation into the judge’s wife.”
This is a big deal: “It was not immediately clear what consequences Arpaio might face over the secret investigation,” the AP said, but “Federal law prohibits trying to intimidate or inappropriately influence a federal judge.” Arpaio likely was trying to get dirt on the judge he could use to get the judge removed from the case or, barring that, antagonize the judge enough to force his recusal. But that shouldn’t be allowed to succeed, under the principal that defendants don’t get to pick their judges.
Making Arpaio serve time in his own jail, in a pink jumpsuit, would be sweet satisfaction for his countless detractors and critics. Forcing him from office would be even better.