A judge's robe

[Pah]

http://www.therevealer.org/

A circuit court judge in the Alabama town of Andalusia, Ashley McKathan, has begun wearing a custom-made judicial robe, embroidered with the Ten Commandments on his chest, to court. "'Certainly I wanted to make a point,'" said McKathan. "'I think it is important to keep the issue before the people.'" The judge's gold-lettered robe (ordered with fewer pleats to accomodate the needlework) has caused such a media stir that a lawyer trying a case before McKathan has objected that his client won't get a fair trial and a defendent facing a DUI charge asked, "'Why now, with my case before him?'" As though trials were what courts are for. Amateurs.

Article linked from above - full artcle

Judge's robe gets national attention
McKathan's office is getting supportive phone calls from all over the country
Thursday, December 16, 2004
By CONNIE BAGGETT
Staff Reporter

ANDALUSIA -- Two days after Presiding Circuit Court Judge Ashley McKathan donned a robe in court displaying the Ten Commandments on his chest, staffers were busy fielding calls from media outlets and supporters across the nation.

"We've had calls from Texas, Washington state, Arkansas, California, New Jersey and Tennessee, plus the local calls," explained McKathan's secretary, Susan Sansom, looking over a legal pad listing the callers early on Wednesday. "Every one of them is supportive of what the judge has done. We have not had a single complaint called in."

Then there were media calls from local papers, radio and television and even the CNN and MSNBC cable news networks. The south Alabama judge seemed a bit surprised at how quickly word of his gold-lettered robe traveled.

"This is only the third day," he said, smiling and still wearing the robe during a break in court proceedings. "I expected a little stir, but I never dreamed it would go so far so fast."

But it has, and that is part of the problem, according to some attorneys, including Riley Powell, who is trying a case before McKathan and has two others on the docket in the coming days.

"I objected to the robe because the news media attracted by it has been a distraction in this case," Powell said Wednesday. "Even though the judge warned them not to read papers or listen to the news media, this morning at least half had seen the news and read accounts of the issue -- it was on Rick and Bubba's radio show this morning and on 'Paul Harvey.' Some had even been called by the media.

"The judge asked them and they all said they could still give my client a fair trial. I hope so."

McKathan's secretary said he decided somewhere around the end of October to order the robe, paying for it with his own money. He then hired a local seamstress to embroider the Ten Commandments in bold letters on the front, she said.

Wouldn't it be better to have shopped in an eclesiastical store?

Bob

 

[Jaymes]

*sings along to the tune of Where Have All The Flowers Gone* o/` Where has the seperation of church and state gone... o/`

Edit: Here's a picture of the robe.

 

[jewscout]

Perhaps he should have had just the second tablet placed on his robe which were prohibitions on crimes/sins against man.

 

[Sunstone]

Maybe the judge finds it easier to read the Ten Commandments than read a law book.

 

[Pah]

Maybe the judge finds it easier to read the Ten Commandments than read a law book.

Upside-down and backwards????
It would be best to take off the robe before trying to read it. In fact, it would be best to just take off the robe.

Bob

 

[Feathers in Hair]

Upside-down and backwards????
It would be best to take off the robe before trying to read it. In fact, it would be best to just take off the robe.

Bob

Upside down and backward *unless* he can crane his head quite a bit.

I'm all for him taking off the robe, unless he wants me to sneak into his closet late at night and embroider all other sorts of religious statements on it... *looks sly* I'll just distract him with some yummy cheese cake that 'miraculously' appears in the fridge.

 

[Sunstone]

Upside-down and backwards????
It would be best to take off the robe before trying to read it. In fact, it would be best to just take off the robe.

Bob

I don't know, Bob, he sounds to me like the sort of judge who holds his law books upside down and backwards, too.

 

[Master Vigil]

He should also put the 4 noble truths and the 8 fold path on there as well. Or maybe he would see that his action is not "right action."

 

[robtex]

you have got to be kidding me..this is a an insult to our legal system.....need to email the idiot and educate this idiot judge on seperatation of church and state? this judge sucks. how can a non christian go before her and feel they are going to be judged on secular laws based on this garbage? Absolutlly ridiculous!!

 

[HelpMe]

disgusting

 

[Mister Emu]

how can a non christian go before her and feel they are going to be judged on secular laws based on this garbage?

If the judge was going to be discriminatory(sp) she would be so regardless of the robe she wore.

 

[Master Vigil]

"If the judge was going to be discriminatory(sp) she would be so regardless of the robe she wore."

Maybe, but that doesn't mean her discrimination isn't being displayed to all because of the robe she wears.

 

[painted wolf]

I wonder if the Judge is considering running for some sort of office or appointment. This sounds like a publicity stunt. It was garenteed to work and it looks like it may have. It is a shame that Judges use thier positions of secular power to push religious agendas, or use religious agendas to bolster thier own career.

wa:do

 

[Pah]

I wonder if the Judge is considering running for some sort of office or appointment. This sounds like a publicity stunt. It was garenteed to work and it looks like it may have. It is a shame that Judges use thier positions of secular power to push religious agendas, or use religious agendas to bolster thier own career.

wa:do

It could that the judge will team up with Judge Moore on the speakers circuit - a kind of Frick and Frack of the Tabloid sect.

Bob

 

[Isis-Astoroth]

All I can say is that I'm glad nobody in the UK has tried that. Judges are meant to be impartial, and that's the most obvious display of not be impartial that i've ever seen! Keep religion out of law is my opinion.

 

[No*s]

You know, this sort of thing just servers to make him (and us other Christians by connection) look very, very bad.

I wonder if the thought occurred to him...

 

[Pah]

You know, this sort of thing just servers to make him (and us other Christians by connection) look very, very bad.

I wonder if the thought occurred to him...

I'm sure he thought about the embrodiary and decided it was very good for Christianity.

Bob

 

[Sunstone]

All I can say is that I'm glad nobody in the UK has tried that. Judges are meant to be impartial, and that's the most obvious display of not be impartial that i've ever seen! Keep religion out of law is my opinion.

Ya mean to say, Isis-Astoroth, that it just doesn't give you a warm and fuzzy feeling all over to see a law judge embroider his robe with the Ten Commandments? Maybe if he had also embroidered his robe with the Biblical punnishments, such as stoning someone to death, you'd come around and see just how beautiful it is to follow our most ancient traditions when it comes to the law?

 

[No*s]

I'm sure he thought about the embrodiary and decided it was very good for Christianity.

Sadly, Pah, I bet you're right.

 

[Pah]

Sadly, Pah, I bet you're right.

But it certainly wouldn't be good for Muslims and Atheists in his court. If I was a defendant, I could not ask that he take off the robe and expect impartial rulings

Bob