One of my first-year students in Civil Procedure raised his hand on Friday and, in connection with one of the cases we had read, asked me whether the plaintiff could sue the judge. I said "No", and promptly went off on a long tangent about just how hard it is to sue judges, and why. (Parenthetically, my students could not have been more psyched about the tangent, and asked several follow-up questions on the issue. Their approach, I think, was that anything was more interesting than Civ Pro. I could have been talking about the size and shape of my fingernails and they'd have probably similarly asked half a dozen follow-up queries regarding how hard they were, how often I cut them, etc. Anything -- anything -- other than Civ Pro.)
What I should have said is simply: "It's incredibly hard. You basically can't do it. Read this opinion by Judge Gould. Then read this post. Now, back to cross claims . . . ." That would have done the trick.
You can't sue judges. Really. You basically just can't.
