Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Conduct unbecoming?
An Alabama judge has taken to wearing the Ten Commandments embroidered on his robe. Litigants are complaining.
When somebody orders this judge to stop wearing the Ten Commandments on his robes, religious conservatives will go bananas. Does a judge not have freedom of speech? A citizen, after all, can wear a jacket that says "Fuck the Draft" in a courthouse and the government is powerless to prevent it, so why can't a judge wear robes that bear the Ten Commandments?
I have a reason: Judges shouldn't be decorating their robes with slogans, even slogans as hallowed as the Ten Commandments. I would also be against judges decorating their robes with "Live Free or Die" or "Our Liberties We Prize And Our Rights We Will Maintain" (points to the reader who can identify that second state motto without resorting to Google). Judges need to appear objective and sober even if they sometimes come up short in the event, and should not compromise that appearance by making their robes look like a souvenir from Branson.
That having been said, it is a pretty funny stunt and it raises all sorts of interesting questions about the rights and obligations of judges under the constitution. Some law professor somewhere is going to make these facts the basis of an exam question.
A judge refused to delay a trial Tuesday when an attorney objected to his wearing a judicial robe with the Ten Commandments embroidered on the front in gold...
The commandments were described as being big enough to read by anyone near the judge.
Attorney Riley Powell, defending a client charged with DUI, filed a motion objecting to the robe and asking that the case be continued. He said McKathan denied both motions.
"I feel this creates a distraction that affects my client," Powell said.
When somebody orders this judge to stop wearing the Ten Commandments on his robes, religious conservatives will go bananas. Does a judge not have freedom of speech? A citizen, after all, can wear a jacket that says "Fuck the Draft" in a courthouse and the government is powerless to prevent it, so why can't a judge wear robes that bear the Ten Commandments?
I have a reason: Judges shouldn't be decorating their robes with slogans, even slogans as hallowed as the Ten Commandments. I would also be against judges decorating their robes with "Live Free or Die" or "Our Liberties We Prize And Our Rights We Will Maintain" (points to the reader who can identify that second state motto without resorting to Google). Judges need to appear objective and sober even if they sometimes come up short in the event, and should not compromise that appearance by making their robes look like a souvenir from Branson.
That having been said, it is a pretty funny stunt and it raises all sorts of interesting questions about the rights and obligations of judges under the constitution. Some law professor somewhere is going to make these facts the basis of an exam question.
0 Comments:
