Judges Are in Serious Need of a Halters, Not Masks

By Rich Kozlovich 

On October 15, 2022 Brittany Bernstein published this article,  N.C. Judge Throws Jury Candidate in Jail for Refusing to Wear Mask, which generated some conversation in my e-mail group.   She states: 

A North Carolina man who reported for jury duty this week found himself in jail for 24 hours after he refused to wear a mask in court, despite there being no local mask mandates in place.   “I never thought I would show up to jury duty and end up behind bars,” Gregory Hahn told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight. Hahn told WRAL there were signs in the courthouse saying no masks were required and that he and 98 other jury candidates “all walked in.” Harnett County court judge Charles Gilchrist is the only one within the courthouse that requires a mask, clerk of superior court Renee Whittenton told the local outlet.

So, is this normal there? No, it appears:

 “You can go in any district courtroom without a mask, you can come into superior clerk court without a mask and the [district attorney’s] office without a mask, but with Judge Gilchrist he has a mandate that you must wear a mask,”............Hahn refused Gilchrist’s order to wear a face covering, and despite not breaking any local masking laws, the judge had him arrested and sent to jail for contempt of court.

Now judges have a lot of leeway about what goes on in their courts, which is why we have contempt of court laws.  But where did those laws come from?  The legislature, and they passed them for valid reason, in order to maintain the dignity and integrity of the court.  So, while this arrogant judge may be following the letter of the law, he's clearly violated the spirit of the law, as it seems clear to me this judge exceeded the intent of the Contempt of Court concept. 

 

Initially I felt I could accept the idea of the judge just dismissing him as a juror and sending him home, but I've had time to think about this, and I've concluded dismissing him as a juror would have still exceeded his authority because his little "mandate" is in effect judicial legislation.  And for this judge to throw him in jail, for violating his personal un-legislated mandate just about amounts to legal kidnapping, and he should be challenged, fired, dismissed, resign or whatever to get this person out of the judicial system, and legislation passed to punish these out of control judges. 

 

I would love it if this guy turned this into a massive PR protest demanding this judge's resignation.  I would love to see Lt. Gov., a no nonsense guy who will be Governor of N. Carolina some day, take this up as a personal issue. 

 

There are those who consider this a minor issue, but think about this.   In today's atmosphere were bakers are being

put out of business because they won't bake cakes with homosexual themes,  what if a Judge demanded all men wear a dress in his court, or put on make up?  Or all women in  his court wear men's suits and cut their hair to look like a man, with no jewelry, no nail polish, etc.?  And if they all refused, would he have the right to find them in contempt?  Would  he have the right to send them to jail?  Clearly that would not be acceptable, so we accept the idea there are boundaries to their authority regarding Contempt of Court rulings.  

 

Judges in America are in serious need of strong lessons that it's the legislature that passes laws, not the judiciary, and while this might not on the surface appear as a legislative issue, when you send someone to jail where no crime has been committed and no disrespect for the court was intended, it becomes personal lawmaking by a judge,  and that makes it a legislative issue.  That's the way I see this, and  since it apparently isn't the way things are, then it's clear things need to be changed to make the world the way I see it. 

 

Now, how can anyone find fault with that?