I have a slight fascination with the stuff that people wear to court. Teenage girls seem to always be looking for creative ways to show too much skin- a few years ago it was jeans cut way too low, now the jeans are higher but the shirts are cut way too low- but that's arguably the fashion.

A couple weeks ago I had a kid show up, recently released from juvenile prison for a gang related offense. Claimed he had gone straight and quit bangin'.
"Why the !@#$ are you wearing red from head to toe, then?
"Uhh.. it was all the clean clothes I had?"
Well, let's hope for the best.

The t-shirts defendants, especially, wear are what makes you wonder if they have any chance of functioning in society. What impression does it give, for example, to show up in court with "MGD-IT'S TIME TO DRINK BEER!" in three inch letters on your chest?

Saw a couple new ones this week. One's shirt had a large "smiley face" with a bullet hole in the forehead. Another kid was waiting for a probation appointment in a shirt that said "THE MAN" with an arrow pointed up toward his face and "THE LEGEND" with an arrow pointing down toward his crotch. Bet the probation officer was impressed. Hope it wasn't a sex offense.

I was doing my best to hide it....

So today the Court of Appeals reversed a judge who tried to hold me in contempt.

Drug Court rejects the guy Friday afternoon, I don't hear about it by Monday morning and don't show for the hearing, thinking the guy's in Drug Court. Several other attorneys tell me they would have done the same thing.

At oral argument, I mention that the judge gave me two days in jail in his initial order. Jaws drop and eyebrows fly up.

"Is that in the record?"

"Sure is!"

Reading the opinion, I suspect that the judges were as appalled as everyone else.


A few years ago I won an appeal on a difficult search and seizure issue. Naturally, the Court of Appeals doesn't publish the opinion. Let me make a mistake (and the judge make a bigger one) and it's now a published opinion. Of all the things I didn't want to be famous for!

In the trial court, I told the judge (roughly):

"I spend my days demanding respect for the rights of people who did something they shouldn't have. It might be easier to just pay the fine, but why should I hold you to a lower standard for me than I demand for my clients?"