The government is on insensitivity patrol! In a 5-2 LA Supreme Court decision, a Lousiana judge in New Orleans was suspended without pay for 6 months recently. Why, you might ask? Because his Halloween costume was “racially insensitive.” He will lose more than $50,000 in pay and has been ordered by the court to take a sociology course “which will assist him in achieving a greater understanding of racial sensitivity.” “The Supreme Court sent a strong message that the court won’t tolerate racist acts by judges,” said Jerome Boykin, head of the Terrebonne Parish branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
And why is the judge being embarrassed and punished? For “crime” of wearing blackface paint, handcuffs, and a jail jumpsuit to a Halloween party. His wife dressed as a policewoman. The costumes, said the reprimanded judge Ellender, were intended only as a joke that he was her prisoner.
See here and here for the story.
This incident is a trajesty of justice. Even if the judge wore his costume for racist reasons, and there isn’t evidence that he did, it isn’t the government’s (much less the court’s) business to be punishing people for it. The only thing that might be considered as giving the LA Supreme Court the power and right to do so is that Ellender is a state judge. I hope the LA courts will not attempt to enforce similar decisions on those who are not employees of the government. But what is the likelihood of that?
Geoffrey is an Aristotelian-Libertarian political philosopher, writer, editor, and web designer. He is the founder of the