Bankruptcy, DUI / DWI, Fashion, Federal Judges, Gender, Judge of the Day

A Cross-Dressing Judge Hangs Up His Heels

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Or at least his robes. A quick update on a recent Judge of the Day, from Robert Ambrogi over at Legal Blog Watch:

By all accounts, Robert Somma had been a top-notch U.S. bankruptcy judge since his appointment to the bench in 2004 and a top-notch bankruptcy practitioner for many years before that. The sense of many in the Boston area is that the 63-year-old’s retirement Friday from his $158,000-a-year bench seat is a tragedy….

A footnote to this story is that a legal-blogger may have contributed to the judge’s decision to resign.

No, not us! By the time we got to the story, it had been all over the news. Also, for the record, we fully support transvestism.
More after the jump.


Still from the Legal Blog Watch post:

One fact left out of initial news reports was the judge’s attire at the time of his arrest [for DUI]: black cocktail dress, fishnet hose and high heels. Even the police report omitted this, except to note that the judge “had a difficult time locating his license in his purse.”

Enter New Hampshire blogger Chris King, a former lawyer and journalist who claims both on his blog and on BostonNOW to have “scooped” the news media in reporting the judge’s attire. On the day after the judge entered his plea, King described the judge on his blog as having been “in drag” at the time of his arrest. The day after that, the story appeared in the New Hampshire Union Leader and the judge resigned.

We question whether Judge Somma should have resigned. Is this really that big a deal? When you strip away the women’s clothing, colorful but irrelevant details, you’re left with a DWI arrest — which, while not exactly commendable conduct, is something other judges have survived.
But others feel differently — like this blog commenter:

Well, my beloved and I don’t cross-dress, drag dress, or play dress-ups. It does make a difference that a JUDGE was DUI and in Fishnets (pleeze, tell me they were thigh-high). As I remember they are suppose to be exemplary citizens, who abide by the laws (not break them). So, his resignation is necessary, dignified as it gets, and makes way for another competent esq. to take the job. At least he had some shred of decency, to off-set his poor taste.

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Poor taste — where’s the evidence of that? When the judge was arrested, he was wearing a “little black dress” — which is, while unimaginative, the epitome of classic, understated good taste.
The Blawger and the Bankruptcy Judge [Legal Blog Watch]
Earlier: Male Judge + DWI + Little Black Dress + Fishnets = Judge of the Day

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