In what is otherwise a fly-speck of a case, the Sixth Circuit betrayed its exasperation with John Adams, a district judge sitting in the Northern District of Ohio. Judge Adams, some years ago, was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation by the Sixth Circuit Judicial Council, an order which he successfully resisted. "Federal judge John Adams no longer faces misconduct charge or demand for mental evaluation."
The case is United States v. Abdullah. Abdullah filed in 2019 a motion for a sentence reduction based on 2018's First Step Act, which does allow defendants to obtain a sentence reduction in some circumstances. "Over the next four and a half years, Abdullah continued to press his sentence-reduction arguments through several filings and at a hearing on his motion." Eventually, some 1625 days after Abdullah filed his motion, Judge Adams denied it by a "gravely flawed order [that] failed to analyze Abdullah's sentence-reduction motion ... and instead ruled on an argument -- entitlement to compassionate release due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- that Abdullah's motion plainly did not advance." Nevertheless, the Sixth Circuit affirmed the denial of the sentence reduction because Abdullah was subject to a statutory mandatory minimum sentence as to which the First Step Act offered no relief. "We review judgments, not reasoning" the Sixth Circuit conceded in exasperation.
Judge Adams is only the second federal judge to ever be ordered by a judicial oversight board to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. "Federal judge who faced psych exam over 'antisocial' behavior says order was unconstitutional."
The Sixth Circuit's published opinion was authored by Judge Richard Griffin and joined by Judges Raymond Kethledge and John Bush.
