Last Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of hearing local Judge and Cornell alumnus Scott Miller talk about his experience on the job. While I find myself very interested in the judicial system, I had never before had the opportunity to talk with a judge. Fortunately, Judge Miller had some tremendous insight on how to correct problems facing America and did a tremendous job answering questions from students.
Judge Miller explained that he viewed the lack of health care and the education system as the two biggest problems in America. He believes that education would keep kids out of prisons and ironically, if the country just put a bit more money into the education system for young people, it would save a lot of money that the government spends to imprison them later. I agree with this statement, as I have seen many kids from my area who dropped out of school end up in trouble. Judge Miller also talked about adopting Canada’s healthcare system.
Fortunately, I was able to ask Judge Miller about his opinion of the Larry Nassar court hearing and the judge’s behavior. In my opinion, I found her behavior to be somewhat excessive, but I could not find myself willing to side with Mr. Nassar in anyway, so I accepted it. Judge Miller had a much different viewpoint, which I respected and found very interesting. He believes that judges should understand their role in the court and not abuse power. Judge Miller explained how hard sentencing someone to prison is and how he is never happy to do it. I look forward to hearing from more people involved in the legal system of the United States to explore my interest in law.
In regards to the Larry Nassar case I found Judge Millers comments interesting. I think while Mr. Nassar’s actions were deplorable I don’t think that it was appropriate on the part of the judge the comment she did. I understand that she is a person but I think as a judge it’s your job to act professionally in court regardless of your personal opinions on the case. I don’t think it was the worst comment she could have made but it still was in my opinion somewhat inappropriate.
Although I was somewhat surprised by Judge Miller’s input about the judge’s comment to Nassar, his rationale about how the judge should have been more professional and cognizant of the situation in delivering her sentence was very well thought out and sensible.