Legal Ethics

Judge Advises Defendant How To Show Women 'You're The Man'

Not great advice.

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I know that judges — like every other profession — are made up of good ones and… not-so-good ones. But there’s a weird idolization of the job that can make it jarring when there are allegations of impropriety from the bench.

All of which brings me to the latest story in judicial ethics. A New Jersey judge, Steven Brister, has been suspended for a month without pay by the state supreme court for some eyebrow-raising comments. According to a filing made by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, his, ahem… advice? to a defendant in a domestic violence case was more than a little problematic.

That advice that Judge Brister bestowed is that women are created as curves, “but we as men, we think we are above creation and we can straighten it out. No matter how much you try, or how you try to straighten out that curve, you can never do it.”

And he went on:

“We get frustrated and then—but, in our frustration you can’t come at them like you’re Mike Tyson and they’re in the ring like they’re Leon Spinks. You can’t do it. You can’t punch, you can’t hit.

“At best, you treat as if you’re holding a feather, just to let them know you’re the man and you’re in control. But in each of these five complaints it said you went at them like Mike Tyson.”

Let women “know you’re a man and you’re in control”??? What in the misogynistic, misguided biblical teaching is this nonsense? According to reports, Brister’s lawyer argued the “control” reference was to being in control of oneself not in control of a woman. Hmmmmmm. And the women are created as a curve a reference to Eve being created from the rib of Adam. I’m… not impressed with this explanation.

And as it turns out, neither was the ethics committee. They called the religiously tinged comments “inappropriate and wholly misplaced in a court of law.” And they thought the remarks on how to treat women “had the clear potential to suggest that the judge possessed a bias against women” and they “impugned the integrity of the judiciary and the judicial process.” They also noted, “These remarks tarnished the dignity and solemnity of the courtroom proceeding.”

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Turns out, the New Jersey Supreme Court agrees.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. 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).

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