Mass. Lawyers Weekly, November 26, 2014

To the editor:
Any sentient being in the legal or court communities has known about the influence of political patronage in judicial hiring not for decades, but for generations.
U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young’s comments on the subject at the sentencing of former Probation Department Commissioner John J. O’Brien and his two former deputies would have required more courage, but might have been more useful, during his years on the Superior Court or as legal counsel to the governor.
Judge Brian R. Merrick
(retired)
The writer formerly sat on the District Court bench.