Lawyer wears ‘Black Lives Matter’ pin in courtroom protest

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS

A deputy public defender in Las Vegas who defied a judge’s request that she not wear a “Black Lives Matter” pin in court has become the latest voice of protest in a national debate over police brutality and race relations.

Erika Ballou’s protest comes two months after a black defense attorney in Youngstown was arrested on a contempt of court charge for wearing a similar pin in a municipal courtroom – prompting a debate about where to draw the line between courtroom decorum, political speech and free expression.

Defense attorney Andrea Burton said Wednesday she settled a federal civil-rights lawsuit Sept. 1 with an agreement that allows her to wear the pin in the courthouse – but not in the courtroom.

“We agreed to apply a dress code evenly, so that officers also can’t be in a courtroom with black tape over their badges,” Burton said during a vacation in Las Vegas.

Ballou, who is black, balked Tuesday at Clark County District Court Judge Douglas Herndon’s request that she remove the small round “Black Lives Matter” pin from her blouse while representing a white domestic battery defendant at a sentencing hearing.

The protest is expected to continue Thursday, when Ballou and attorneys who back her protest say they intend to wear “Black Lives Matter” pins again in Herndon’s courtroom. Clark County Public Defender Phil Kohn said he’ll be with Burton to support her position.

“If you think that Black Lives Matter is anti-police, ask yourself if police are anti-Black Lives,” Ballou said in a written statement prepared last weekend, after she learned the Las Vegas police union sent a letter to judges complaining about what the union executive termed “‘Black Lives Matter’ propaganda” in courtrooms.

“In a free country, I shouldn’t be afraid of the police,” Ballou said in her statement, “but I am.”

If Burton’s case provides an example, Ballou may not win permission to wear the pin in court. John Juhasz Jr., a lawyer who represented Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Robert Mililch, said federal case law he found shows that judges have broad discretion over decorum, and defense lawyers are in court to represent their clients’ interests, not their own.

“Lawyers are there for other people, not for ourselves,” Juhasz said. “The cases talk about lawyers not having First Amendment rights themselves in court. We go there as advocates for other people.”

Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said judges can limit perceived political speech or expression in court and even ban clothing that conveys a message.