Court Opinion

ID: 9535823
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:44:58.60845+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:21.333151
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mb. Justice Mandebino:
I must respectfully dissent.
Contempt of court is a crime.
In all criminal prosecutions, a person is entitled to his constitutional rights. The judicial branch of government cannot ignore the constitutional rights of citizens when the crime is contempt of court rather than any other crime.
Due process of law prohibits the conviction of any person before a tribunal in which one person serves as prosecutor, defense counsel, witness, judge, and jury. Due process requires an objective neutral tribunal. If a policeman were allegedly kicked by a person obstructing justice, we might call it contempt of the policeman. It would be constitutionally impermissible, however, to allow the policeman to conduct an on-the-spot-one-man-trial and impose punishment. If the President of the United States were obstructed in the performance of his executive functions, we would call it contempt of the President, but it would be unconstitutional to allow him to mete out punishment by snapping his fingers. If a member of the House of Representatives were obstructed in the performance of his legislative function, *466we could call it contempt of the legislature, but we could not constitutionally allow a quick thumbs-up or thumbs-down decision for the imposition of punishment.
Why should we allow a judge (or Justice) to have a special privilege when the judicial function is allegedly obstructed? There is constitutional silence concerning any special judicial privilege which permits the judicial branch to deprive a person of constitutional rights because a member of the judicial branch is involved. Punishment for contempt of court without constitutional protections that exist for all other crimes is nothing more than the exercise of raw judicial power. It is not the exercise of constitutional judicial authority.
Would we permit a person who is a witness to a Brime to file a complaint, take the witness stand at the trial, receive immunity from cross-examination, get off the witness stand and jump into the judge’s chair, make a final decision and impose punishment? Constitutional law prohibits such a practice. It does so for judges as well as all other citizens.
The special judicial privilege of punishing a person for the crime called contempt of court developed in Star Chamber proceedings in the early 1600’s. Am extreme use of the special privilege occurred in 1631, when a convicted felon hurled a brickbat at the Chief Justice, missed, and was summarily dispatched by severing his right hand and nailing it to the gibbet before hanging bim in the presence of the court. Patterson, A Proposal for Reform Providing “The Least Possible Power Adequate to the End Proposed,” 17 S.D.L. Rev. 41 (Winter, 1972).
We do not today summarily cut off hands and hang in the presence of the court but we should root out and eliminate completely every vestige of this privileged practice. The obstruction of justice, in any way, at any time, by any person, is a serious offense. We have, how*467ever, other workable procedures to prevent disruptions in the courtroom. We do not need a special privilege for judges which dispenses with constitutional safeguards.