Miscellaneous

Stop! In the naaaaaaame of looooove ... before you act like a racist, misogynist pig!

I'm no transvestite -- not that there's anything wrong with that -- but I'll freely admit that I enjoy a good excuse to put a dress on every once in a blue moon. Halloween, a play, etc. In fact, in law school, Dustin and I hosted a Halloween party with our other roommates where we both wound up in full drag (I was a renaissance maiden while he was dirty, dirty hooker). Anyway, the very first time I threw on a dress was when I was wee lad of about 10 or so. I went to a day camp (Camp Arrowhead, represent!) where each of the bunks put on a little musical/theatrical performance. This particular year, for example, I recall one bunk doing AC/DC's "Big Balls," complete with basketballs, volleyballs, etc., stuffed down their pants. The folks in charge weren't so impressed. But my classy group of bunkmates decided to go with The Supremes' "Stop! In the Name of Love," including a few of us in full drag (thankfully, we had the common sense not to do blackface!).

It was a smash hit and we handedly won the competition. I still remember one small bit of the dance routine, in fact, and the song has always held a warm spot in the black, callous mass that is my heart.

All of which is a long way to get to the story of our latest asshat judge, one W. Kennedy Boone III. With a name like that, you know he's a racist prick, right? Right.

So last April, he thought it'd be a good idea to refer to three female, black public defenders as "the Supremes," and to tell a criminal defendant that he might want to get himself an "experienced male attorney" instead. Well the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities finally got around to dealing with this incident, and recently ruled that Boone's comments were "undignified and disparaging" (you think?). Boone, for his part, says he has no defense (you think?).

And the extent of his punishment? A whopping reprimand. But don't worry, because it's a serious reprimand -- it's published!

Full post as published by Quiz Law on February 04, 2008 (boomark / email).