“F-Word in Court Equals Six-Month Prison Term”
When does brusque behavior in court cross the line into criminal contempt? It was an issue explored yesterday in this D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which either strikes a note for court decorum or hampers free speech, depending on your perspective.
At issue in the case is none other than the F-bomb. At a criminal sentencing hearing last year, a defendant (who was not identified in the opinion) evidently was displeased about the sentence he received, exclaiming in court: “F*** y’all.”
The trial judge immediately found the defendant guilty of contempt for “uttering a profanity at me in my presence, in my sight, and in a calculated way.” He handed down a one-year prison sentence for contempt, on top of the other sentences he had imposed for the defendant’s underlying criminal offenses.
The defendant appealed the contempt sentence, claiming he did not obstruct justice, since he uttered the colorful turn of phrase after the hearing had already concluded. But the D.C. Circuit held that verbal fireworks alone, even absent the “material” disruption of ongoing court proceedings, is enough to qualify for contempt. “An outburst of foul language directed at the court is intolerable misbehavior,” D.C. Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson wrote for the majority….
But the defendant won one concession: the D.C. Circuit reduced his contempt sentence to 6 months, on the grounds that a court can not not impose a sentence longer than that without a jury trial.
Because the blogosphere has a decorum standard much different than the courtroom, I am amused and a bit annoyed that the WSJ Law Blog was unwilling to spell out the work fuck in its report here. As the prior sentence reveals, however, I am not a big believer in word taboos. Sticks and stones and all that…
If I did not have a lot of exams to grad and other responsibilities, I would be tempted to use this new DC Circuit ruling as an excuse to start a new (sure to be popular) blog on Seven Dirty Words Sentencing Jurisprudence. (One of my Ohio State colleagues already has written a great article and a great book on fuck jurisprudence, which now may need to be updated.) Perhaps the spirits of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin will inspire someone to find out if any other infamous dirty words — which are shit, piss, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits, along with honorable metions ass and ball — have led to prison terms if/when a person has the temerity to utter one of them in a courtroom.
Personally, I am not nearly as troubled by the use of a naughty word in the courtroom as I am by the fact that my federal tax dollars are now going to be spent housing a guy for another six months simply because he said fuck in a courtroom. But I may be full of shit and commentors should feel free to tell me to piss off in the comments.