Contempt of Court? I Do Think so...

            The idea for this blog post came from where so many others this semester have come from. While wandering the internet looking at news articles I found one that made me shake my head & start looking around to see what else I could find on the subject. The subject of interest for this week is inappropriate clothing for court appearances. I guess finding out that some people don’t understand that court is one of those places you should at least look clean and put together shouldn’t really be that much of a surprise, but I guess I just live in a bubble and that thought hadn’t crossed my mind. Any time I’ve set foot in court for an appearance I’ve done my best to wear business appropriate clothing; I mean no power suit or anything, but nice pants and a dressy type shirt for sure. So it really caught my interest while scanning random articles on MSN.com to see the title “Sagging Pants Gets Man 3 Days in Jail” so of course I had to read it and look around for more articles on the subject.

            The back story on this article and the other I found that is based on an interview with the Judge in the case John Bush from the Circuit Court in Autuaga County, Alabama referenced the instance when LaMarcus D. Ramsey was in court on charges of receiving stolen property and was wearing sagging pants that exposed his underwear. This just seems totally inappropriate to me. I mean it’s one thing if you’ve lost a lot of weight and you’re temporarily having issues keeping your pants where you belong, but it’s different if that’s the style you have chosen to adopt on a regular basis. The quote that is really sticking with me from these articles is “You are in contempt of court because you showed your butt in court, you can spend three days in jail. When you get out you can buy pants that fit, or at least get a belt to hold up your pants so your underwear doesn’t show.” This seriously and literally made me laugh out loud. My friend sitting on the other couch thought I’d lost my mind.

            On further searching I did find a couple of other articles referencing appropriate dress in the courtroom. The most comprehensive lists some not to wear items from different jurisdictions around the country which include that you should not wear flip flops in Bakersfield, California, jeans in Inkster, Michigan or short-shorts in Dover, Delaware. While some of the dress codes might seem a bit too restrictive, really they have merit in that the set rules and regulations help maintain order in the courtroom. I mean it would seem common sense to know not to wear a Chuckie T-shirt to court that says “say goodbye to the killer” or to not wear pajamas to court, but this article uses both of them as real life examples of what people have worn. I even saw mention of someone wearing a clown costume to court. Sometimes I just shake my head at the lack of common sense displayed by some of my fellow Americans.