In the previous article entitled Why the Supreme Court Gave Judges Absolute Judicial Immunity at the Expense of Our “Guaranteed” 14th Amendment Rights in the Constitution, we discussed one of the reasons the Supreme Court justified judicial immunity. The reason was: Lord Coke held in Floyd v Barker that a judge handling a murder trial could not be prosecuted in another court for criminal conspiracy. This had the effect of “establish[ing] the immunity of judges of courts of record. This is why today judges are allowed to break the law and legislate from the bench.
Did Lord Coke really say that? Yes, he did. Lord Coke stated that judges, witnesses and Justices of the Peace were not to be called into the Star Chamber, “for any conspiracy” “when the party indicted is convicted or attaint of murder or felony” where there was a jury.20
However, let’s look a bit further into what he said. Would that mean corrupt judges have no consequences at all?
He goes on to explain, “if the Judicial matters of Record should be drawn in question, by partial and sinister supposals and averments of Offenders, or any on their behalf, there never will be an end of Causes: But Controversies will be infinite;”(See footnote 12)
Finally, he states again, “They ought not to be drawn into question for any supposed corruption”.(See footnote 12)
Lord Coke was specifically speaking about “supposals” “avernments” and “supposed corruption”(See footnote 12)
Supposed corruption v. actual corruption – Floyd and Barker
What did this mean for judges when an accusation was not a “supposed corruption”? What would happen when they were corrupt and broke the law and were not just “supposedly corrupt?
At the end of his writing about Floyd and Barker, he said:
“Note, Thomas Weyland, Chief Justice of the Common-bench, Sir Ralph Hengham Justice of the Kings Bench; and the other Justices, were accused of Bribery and Corruption; and their causes were determined in Parliament, where some were banished, and some were fined and imprisoned. (See footnote 12)
If you would like to read what he said on your own, I suggest reading his own works published in PDF format online at, “Selected Writings of Sir Edward Coke, 3 vols. | Online Library of Liberty (libertyfund.org).
In the next article things get much more interesting… It’s entitled, “When Lord Coke Wanted a Judge Punished…“
20 The Selected Writings and Speeches of Sir Edward Coke, Volume 1, pp. 427-432