[Avodah] Threats Against A Judge

[Zev Sero]

Harvey Benton wrote:
> If CV a Judge/Rav/Beis Din, etc (and/or their families) are threatened so that they should  rule in a certain way in a civil or criminal matter, what should the Judges do?  Does Sakanos Nefashos take precedence or does Din/Mishpat?  (Or Yirat Hashem? eg. sword over their heads mashal...).  Does the percieved threat level affect this decision?  What about the cases being tried, eg. Dinei Mamon v. Dinei Nefashos, Malkus, etc affecting this decision? Is a threat to be considered as a >bribe< and therefore categorically rejected in all cases?   HB

That's an explicit lav of "lo taguru".  As the Sifri says, "perhaps you will
say I am afraid of so-and-so lest he kill my son, or burn my grain-stack,
or chop down my trees".  There's no question that one may not give a false
psak, and that this overrides pikuach nefesh: the only question is whether
he may recuse himself in such a case, or whether he must take the case
despite the threats.   A discussion of that question can be found here:   
http://www.justice.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/B8DEB4F7-4F15-4D5D-82E6-D28C1F17B9A5/11378/323.rtf
or http://tinyurl.com/8w9yqs

-- 
Zev Sero                    A mathemetician is a device for turning coffee
zev at sero.name               into theorems.                   - Paul Erdos