6 months in the clink for saying the "F" word in court

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. She later quoted a First Circuit opinion, which had this to say about the importance of decorum:

“Courtrooms, especially in criminal cases, are theaters of extreme emotions — stoked by . . . the tensions of striving lawyers, hostile cross examination, and the fearsome stakes. . . .By its tendency to undermine order, a party’s deliberate cursing of a judge in open court can . . .readily be viewed as obstructive.”

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.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/12/29/...3A+Law+Blog%29