Federal Judge's 'Inappropriate' And 'Disturbing' Book

Federal Judge's 'Inappropriate' And 'Disturbing' Book

US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner has a memoir coming out in April, and it bears a very unjudicial title: "In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate.''

The 64-year-old Boston jurist said the book being published by Beacon Press focuses on her two decades as a prominent criminal defense and civil rights lawyer before she joined the bench in 1994. As such, she might not have to worry about the federal Judicial Code of Conduct, which prohibits judges from making public statements about cases that could come before them.

But by devoting a memoir to her years as an "unrepentant advocate'' for notorious criminal defendants and women who brought sex-discrimination suits, Gertner will almost certainly give ammunition to those who say she tilts toward those litigants instead of prosecutors and corporations.

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