SAN DIEGO (CN) - The topic of the panel was mass torts and class actions, but President Donald Trump and Republican legislators' calls for impeaching a Washington judge was on everyone's minds at the Western Alliance Bank's annual Class Action Law Forum at the University of San Diego Thursday.

Before turning to the normal business of the courts, four federal judges from across California brought up judicial independence.

"I think that everyone should be yelling this to the rafters, that this is a full body challenge to our constitutional order and it is not normal, and it should not be normalized and I hope that more members of the bar will speak out because silence on the part of the bar means acquiescence and we can not allow that kind of challenge to the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law to become ordinary, normal, part of our body politic," said Dolly Gee, chief district judge for the Central District of California.

The Barack Obama appointee's comment was prompted by the moderator of the panel, attorney David Casey of CaseyGerry's, mentioning U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' rebuke of Trump's call for impeaching U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg.

Boasberg ordered a two-week halt to the removal of 261 Venezuelan migrants from the U.S. who the administration claims are members of a gang called Tren de Aragua. 

The administration did not comply with that order. The migrants were sent to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador called the Terrorism Confinement Center.

"We want the judiciary to be treated independently and to stop the calls for impeachment, particularly those types of calls that then trigger personal attacks on the families," Casey said.

"The judges before you and the other 660 federal judges, they're a core part of preserving our democracy, and it's really time for us all to step up," he added, to applause from an audience of lawyers and other legal professionals in the university's small auditorium. 

U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo of California's Southern District, an Obama appointee, said she's also received threats of violence.

"It is not a time for people to be bystanders. I think people should think long and hard about what role they play," said Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California Kimberly Mueller, an Obama appointee. "Everyone who cares about our constitutional republic needs to reflect on what they can do." 

Federal judges are limited in what they can do, but they can educate people about what they do and how they adhere to the constitution in their decision making, she added.

"What we're saying applies regardless of who is making the comment," Mueller said.

Judges take oaths to be impartial, which makes them distinct and different from other branches of the government, Gee added. 

The judges also raised issues with their normal court procedures.

Mueller said something Congress could do for her district is pass legislation providing more judges in her district, which needs five additional judges.

Six Article III judges and twelve magistrate Judges in the Eastern District of California handle about a thousand cases on average, she said. With a growing population in the district, the possibility of that workload growing means judges will have a harder time hearing litigants. 

"This is basic infrastructure," Mueller said. "It's not about our judges, it's litigants. Out litigants lose out." 

Last year, outgoing President Joe Biden vetoed the JUDGES Act of 2024, which would have added more federal judges to districts across the country, she said. 

In contrast, Bencivengo said judges in her district have an average caseload of around 470 cases.

U.S. Chief District Judge Richard Seeborg of California's Northern District added that his district leads the country in multidistrict litigations with 14 cases, including challenges to information scraping operations and antitrust litigation, like an ongoing suit against Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.

The Southern District has three active multidistrict litigations, Bencivengo said. Almost 15% of all the district's civil actions are class actions, she added. Seeborg confirmed that class actions are also a dominant proportion of the Northern District's civil docket.

"Every district is separate and a part," Seeborg said, noting that different districts have different traditions, policies and procedures parties in a dispute have to engage in.

The judges also differed in their opinions on hearings held on video livestream services like Zoom. 

While there's a value in arguing in person in a courtroom, especially since attorneys from both parties can meet at the court and possibly settle the case in the hallway outside, judges can try to mimic that by putting attorneys in breakout rooms on Zoom, Mueller said. 

Seeborg added that he understands why live streaming into a hearing makes sense for an attorney who isn't located in the Northern District, but not if they're in town and just don't want to come to court. 

While she understands people electing to do early neutral evaluations, discovery and other short hearings over Zoom, "I like to see people in my courtroom," Bencivengo said.

She worries, she added, about equal access problems if parties in a case have better technologically, better internet access and better familiarity with Zoom and other live streaming services.

Gee was the only judge to go fully to bat for live streaming into hearings. 

"Just parking alone costs an arm and a leg," at the downtown L.A. federal court building, especially for working class people who might have to also take a day off work to go to the courthouse, or people representing themselves in a case, so live streaming allows people to appear before the court by just using their phones wherever they are, Gee said. 

Live streaming helped her preside over a trial from her own kitchen when she got Covid-19 last year, she added. 

"It kind of gives you insights into each of the different districts because they all have different flavors," said attorney Betsy Manifold of Wolf Haldenstein after the panel discussion. It's important, she added, to understand "the rules of the road." 

She especially appreciated the judges speaking out against attacks on judicial independence.  

"This attack on them is just wrong. Not just attorneys, but everybody. If our judicial system fails we're in a constitutional crisis," she said. "The judiciary is the last line of defense." 

Source: Courthouse News Service