of the contempt power.
"The Potential for Judicial Abuse
Although the contempt power is of unquestionable importance in
maintaining the authority of the courts and securing the rights of
plaintiffs who have been granted injunctive relief, this broad power is
uniquely """liable to abuse."'" The potential for abuse stems from the
fact that, in this one area, legislative, executive, and judicial
powers are joined. Thus, the judge, rather than the legislature,
defines the offense and sets the penalty; the judge, rather than a
representative of the executive, decides whether to pursue prosecution;
and this same judge, rather than some neutral member of the judiciary,
acts as adjudicator.
Investing so much power in one person would be problematic in any
circumstance, but in the contempt arena, the problem is exacerbated by
the fact that "contemptuous conduct, though a public wrong, often
strikes at the most vulnerable and human qualities of a judge's
temperament." Indeed, at least in cases involving criminal or civil
coercive contempt, imposition of the contempt sanction is so closely
centered on the need for the court - and the individual judge - to
vindicate its own authority that the judge is "obviously incapable of
holding the scales of justice perfectly fair and true and reflecting
impartially on the guilt or innocence of the accused."
