In Akron Municipal Court, only judges get to wear robes

A big posterboard on an easel and signs taped to its walls announce a new dress code policy for those entering the Akron Municipal Court that went into effect July 1. 

The order from Administrative/Presiding Judge David Hamilton restricts a list of clothing and fashion accessories (listed below). It also states anyone wearing “unacceptable” clothing items will immediately be removed from the Akron Municipal Court and its “surrounding premises” and that “all cases related to the offending litigant” in civil, criminal or traffic court will be rescheduled.

Signal Akron Government Reporter Doug Brown spoke with Hamilton about his justification for the policy and how he believes it will be enforced.

Editor’s note: The following conversation was lightly edited for length and clarity.

Why did you enact this dress code now? Is it in response to a problem that exists or a hypothetical?

It is definitely in response to a problem that exists. I’ve seen it as a judge — I’ve been on the bench for five or six years now — and even as a prosecutor. A lot of my career I’ve spent at the Akron Municipal Court, as a prosecutor, as a judicial attorney, I worked for Judge Cable, and now as a judge. 

This has been a recurring [issue] since I’ve been there, and I can only imagine probably even before me. I thought it was necessary to implement an order stating that we need to have a dress code for everybody who enters the courthouse. 

Prior to the dress code, how often would you see someone wearing something that would now be in violation of the code?

Almost every day. I’m there five days a week, and I would say probably four or five days a week, I would see something. 

And what’s the harm when people do show up wearing something that would now be considered unacceptable? What’s the harm in allowing that to continue?

It’s our institution, right? As American citizens, the court system, the justice system is in our Constitution. Because it is an institution that we have to respect. It’s not about that the order is coming from me or anybody else, but it’s the fact that when you come into any institution — the justice system, Congress, whatever government institution that we have — there needs to be a level of respect and reverence for the position. 

When we get away from that, when we lose the reverence for the position, we kind of lose a piece of our heritage or history, for what we fought for — our freedom, our independence. We just celebrated July 4, Independence Day, and this is what independence is all about. 

These institutions are what we created to keep everybody safe, to keep order and to make sure that people are treated fairly. And that’s the justice system, so we have to have some sort of reverence for it as people. 

We’re all taxpaying citizens. We all belong in the court — we all do — it’s our system and we have to take care of our home. The Akron Municipal Court Building is our home — you pay taxes to that entity. This is your home so we have to take care of it, we have to respect it, we’ve got to take care of it. These are the systems that we put in place that we voted for. You all voted to elect me and the five other judges to lead you, to ensure that people are treated fairly, that people are held accountable. 

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So I guess the harm that you’re speaking of is, one, that people won’t be held accountable. We as human beings, it’s in our nature to push the envelope as far as we can. I’m sure at one point before I started, they were wearing suits and it kind of morphed into a sweater and khakis, a t-shirt and jeans, and now it’s just people coming in in whatever they want to wear. We have to stop that before it goes any further. 

I mean, right now I don’t know if it can get any worse than where it is now. I don’t want to see it get any worse, and that’s why I implemented this new policy — it got pretty bad. 

From my non-lawyer perspective, I can understand dress codes about something like a jury trial in order to get a fairer trial based on how you present yourself to a jury. But you mentioned reverence for the institution and the Constitution, so I’m wondering about the potential First Amendment free speech implications of banning certain types of clothing and self-expression. Is that something you factored into this new policy?

It’s a concern, but what I will say is you have to take everything on a case-by-case basis. I can say that when we drafted the rules, we submitted our rules to the law department to make sure everything was constitutionally sound. And we also looked at other courthouses and court orders throughout the state and they pretty much have something similar. We’ve done our due diligence before we made it public. 

When you say law department, I’m assuming you mean the City of Akron Law Department?

City of Akron, yes. So technically they are our attorneys, and we also have private attorneys as well. When we do anything like this, we run it through the law department and they make sure everything is legally sound and not unconstitutional. 

And we also did our research and looked at other courts that are similarly situated like ours and they have something similar. 

For the logistics of it, who is enforcing this? Are the security guards at the entrance handling this? Are judges handling this?

The judges and our immediate court staff. How it works is when you come into the building, the officers are not going to turn anyone away.

Right now, we just got signs put up on Wednesday around the courthouse with the order. What they’ve been doing, as of today, is each person that comes in, they’re giving them a sheet with the rules. The sheet tells people that you may not want to go up there because the judge is going to send you back because you’re not dressed appropriately. 

They [security] are not sending anybody away, that’s not their function, but if they want to give them some grace and kindness and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to save you some time, the judge may not see you because you’re not dressed appropriately for court.’ 

And then we’re going to have a resource room. We’re actually accepting donations at the end of the month for clothes. So what’s going to happen, if they notice someone who’s not dressed appropriately, they’ll say, ‘Hey, while you’re here, why don’t you go to the resource room and put something on and then go to court because the judge may not see you.’

And when they get up to our court, our bailiffs are the first people they see — the bailiff will then tell them, ‘Hey, you’re not dressed appropriately, you need to go down to the [resource room] to dress appropriately’ or I’m going to give you a continuance and you’re going to have to come back for court another day. 

An attorney told me that someone with business in the court was turned away at the front entrance the other day. Are the procedures still being worked out, and have people been turned away so far?

No, not to my knowledge. I just spoke with the head of security a few days ago, so this is news to me. He said that they would not turn anybody away and he didn’t want to turn anybody away because they don’t want to get into any arguments or fights with anybody downstairs. He was pretty adamant that that’s not something they wanted and we’re on the same page. 

For our records as well, because if you never come upstairs to see me, how do I know if you came in at all? So instead of giving you a warrant for not appearing — I don’t want people to say they were there but were turned away, so we want everybody to come upstairs to see us and then I can say I know for a fact you weren’t dressed appropriately, you can either go downstairs to get something new or your case is going to be continued to another day. For us, it’s more for recording and reporting purposes and we want everybody to come upstairs. 

So it’s my understanding that nobody’s been turned away. 

Editor’s note: After the interview, Signal Akron obtained a copy of a motion from a criminal defendant asking for a new court date because they “couldn’t come in the building” because of the new dress code policy.

Obviously there are major repercussions for missing a court date. Will somebody who is turned away for a dress code violation be counted as a no-show? 

No, it will just be counted as a continuance on a part of the defendant. But if it becomes a recurring thing, where you just show up again and you’re not dressed appropriately, most likely it will be a contempt of court and you’ll have to come back for a contempt hearing. 

What else should we be talking about regarding the dress code philosophy and logistics?

Really, you got to the heart of the matter. But I think the resource room will be the great equalizer, because at the end of the day, people don’t want to come back to court — when you’re there, you’re already missing work, whatever else you’re missing to be in court — so I think having a place where they can just go down to the first floor and grab something and come back up will really calm the anxiety of it all. 

I understand — we really want to make sure we’re protecting peoples’ rights and, trust me, we’re all for protecting peoples’ rights. But at the end of the day, there’s got to be an accountability piece here as well. 

I want to make sure we’re doing our part to ensure that people who do show up to court, who do want to do the right thing, have the ability to do so by getting the clothes they need to appear for court. So I think the resource room will be ideal.

And then the clothes they get from the resource room, they can take their clothes home. We’ve got a clothing drive, accepting gently used and new clothing, and there’s going to be some nice stuff there — I already spoke with some attorneys.

And you mentioned attorneys. Every attorney I’ve spoken with from the defense side, they are all in favor of it. This is not an isolated thing, this has been months of putting this into play and planning this, figuring out the logistics of it. 

Like you, I’m wondering what a defense attorney would say about their client, the fairness of it all. And the people that I’ve spoken with — very respected defense attorneys — they were in favor of it and a lot of them were saying that it was a long time coming. 

Editor’s note: In a statement to Signal Akron shortly after the dress code was implemented, Summit Legal Defenders director Andrea Whitaker said, “While courts have discretion in setting appropriate guidelines, overly restrictive dress codes can create unnecessary barriers for community members seeking access to the legal system.”

And the response from even the post that we put on Facebook and social media, for the most part, the public has really been happy with the change because they said they’ve stepped in court and have seen a lot of the same things that Judge Hamilton is talking about. 

If you take a look at the list, it’s all things that I’ve personally seen. I’ve seen it all.

Again, I’m not saying people have to come in full suits, but there is a certain decorum for how you dress in court, and we’ve got to get back to doing that. 

One last thing — it feels like this list could disproportionately impact low-income people. Is that a concern for you?

No, it’s not a concern now, but it’s something I considered when I drafted the rule. But, again, we have the resource room. The resource room will quell all of the issues, the main issue you’re talking about. 

If you don’t have access to clothes, I understand that — I come from a low-income environment. I get that. But now we have the resource room so there’s really no excuse because you could go down to the resource room, get something and, guess what, you get to keep the clothes. You don’t have to pay and there’s going to be some nice stuff in there.