Court Opinion

ID: 9761272
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:37:08.607674+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:21.663645
License: Public Domain

McDERMOTT, Justice,
dissenting.
To satisfy a discourteous and obstructive defendant, a necessary and useful procedure, honored by civil and sensible men, coeval with the need for orderly process, is today abandoned. Because this appellant would not stand when the court was convened, no one hereafter need stand. The majority finds that the appellant’s refusal to stand was not an obstruction of the processes of the court. To my mind, it was a clear and intentional abuse of process and an obstruction.
The rising in unison is not a token of respect for the person of the judge. For all, including the judge, stand. *580The ceremony is simply an admonition to put aside all other matters and direct and center attention to the business before the court. It separates the corridor from the courtroom, giving notice that the record is open and no distractions from the defendant’s business can be allowed. Analyzed to its clearest purpose, it is the authority of the court being exercised in the interest of the concentration and attention to which the defendant’s business is entitled. No one, including the defendant, should be allowed to alter or dilute that purpose.
I have said that the refusal to stand when court is convened is both an abuse of process and an obstruction. It is an abuse of process because it allows a statement to be made to the court, jury, and other parties, before any statement is allowed by the rules. The statement may indeed be more forceful by action than words. It does not matter what is intended by the action. It may be threat, warning, or absurdity. Whatever is intended, it is out of order and, for whatever it is worth, it is done for an advantage that cannot be answered.
Refusal to stand, or refusal to sit, is also an obstruction to orderly process, for it is intended, and does in fact, defeat the purpose of concentration and attention by rendering the defendant’s person the cynosure of all present, if only because he is out of order. When one is permitted to make statements by word or action, not permitted by the rules, all present lose their commitment to the need for quiet and order. Indeed, some are frightened. Not always an unintended side effect.
The majority undertakes a careful analysis of the criminal contempt statute. They err, however, in concluding that conduct such as this does not obstruct the proceedings. It is an obstruction; of a silent, passive nature, doubtless, but a powerful, undeniable pernicious obstruction nonetheless.
Defendants who will not accept the rules designed for their own protection, or who deny the possibility of justice before our courts, need not attend. They may waive personal attendance before tribunals they reject. The fact is they *581rarely do; they prefer the posture of open discourtesy and disruption. Standing at the convening of a court is a small but necessary ceremony imposed on all. To yield it up to whim, fancy, or threat, is to surrender our mandate to provide considered and orderly justice.
FLAHERTY, J., joins in this opinion.