Black Lawyer Detained At Courthouse Pretty Much For Being Black

Lawyering while black is now a thing.

Rashad James (Screenshot: WBAL TV)

Add goddamned lawyering to the ever-growing list of things (barbecuing, napping, waiting at Starbucks, couponing, eating lunch… jeez, the list just goes on) that are made exponentially more difficult just by virtue of being black. In an incident being described as “lawyering while black,” Maryland Legal Aid attorney Rashad James says he was detained by an officer at the Harford County, Maryland courthouse who insisted James was impersonating a lawyer.

James has (pretty obviously) filed a complaint with the sheriff’s office over the unnamed officer’s behavior. James represented a client, who was not present at the courthouse, on March 6th in an expungement hearing. After a judge granted that petition, James was approached by an officer — who was present at the hearing — and was addressed by his client’s name. According to reports, James explained he was an attorney representing said client and the officer asked James for identification. Apparently, the officer refused to believe James’s identification was valid and escorted him to an interview room for further questioning where James’s lawyers say he was detained for about 10 minutes.

Listen, most of the readers of Above the Law are attorneys, and familiar with how courts work. It is simply incomprehensible that, after watching James enter an appearance on behalf of a client in court, and after identification was produced, an officer continued to question James’s identity. Andrew Freeman, one of the attorneys representing James, says what every white lawyer knows in their heart to be true:

“If Mr. James were white, the officer would not have doubted that Mr. James was an attorney, would not have questioned his identity, and certainly would not have detained Mr. James after seeing his driver’s license. There is no plausible explanation other than racial bias.”

For their part, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler says the complaint will be thoroughly investigated:

“As with all complaints, the complaint filed on behalf of Mr. James was promptly assigned to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office – Office of Professional Standards for a complete and thorough investigation,” Gahler said. “We take all complaints seriously.”

We can only hope they’ll take action so that such an egregious action never happens again.


headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).