Washington
Post
July 25, 2106
Youngstown, Ohio Attorney Andrea Burton was held in contempt
of court and arrested after wearing a Black Lives Matter pin to court.
Matt Mangino, a criminal defense attorney who used to be a
prosecutor in Lawrence County, which borders the county where Burton was
arrested, told The Post that a judge has the authority to determine whether
certain signs are “political.”
The judge can also determine whether
wearing a certain button would be a distraction in the courtroom, or give
the impression of bias. Mangino said:
Judges
obviously have wide latitude in their courtroom with regard to decorum and things like that as long as their rules
are reasonable. It’s not uncommon to have dress codes and other sorts of things. What you normally might find is a
sign outside that says lawyers
need to wear ties or no cutoffs or tank tops.
With
regards to protests or political statements, things that can be controversial
if they’re displayed in a courtroom, it
may be akin to wearing a Hillary Clinton button in the court — anything that could disturb the court or
disturb the decorum within a courtroom or
lead to either the impression of bias.
But you
have to balance that with First Amendment. I think that distinction is in
the eye of the beholder. A judge
obviously has great authority and latitude within his or her courtroom. He is the
beholder. Black Lives Matter is so new, what does it mean to a judge? And how does a judge
determine what that means.
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