A judge in Florida's Ninth Circuit is facing discipline for comments from the bench. The story has been run by The Independent, The Tampa Times, and an Orlando television station. Though the complained-of comments date to an April 2025 jury selection and a July 2025 plea hearing.
The recent news coverage was apparently stimulated by the publication of a report of the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission. It made for interesting reading on the various platforms.
The public comments were a broad spectrum of thoughtful reactions, agricultural advice, and borderline vulgarity. I am persistently astounded by commenters who publish insulting remarks about stories and each other.
In fairness, the complaint against the judge centered primarily on the comments in the July plea hearing. The April 2025 jury selection infraction was a simpler, and perhaps frustrated or excited, utterance—"shut up."
This is not to excuse that incident. Telling people to "shut up" is perhaps an Americanism that has become too familiar to shock or surprise. In any event, it is less offensive than threatening to have the lawyers shot, even in jest. See Shoot the Lawyers (November 2025).
The July 2025 plea hearing is the more noteworthy statement, which is driving the attention and the judicial complaint. There, "a 33-year-old Black female defendant" was to be sentenced, and her black great uncle was also present.
The judge inquired of the great uncle whether he owned land, "where I could have her work it for 30 hours," as part of a sentence. The judge expressed his own familial agricultural experiences and then inquired, "You ever chopped cotton before?" HE then explained how that phrase describes weeding.
The umbrage at the comment is crystaline in retrospect. Nonetheless, the judge has noted that he simply
"failed to consider how his comments could be interpreted in light of the historically demeaning stereotype associating Black people with picking cotton."
The judge further explained that he had "spent summers as a youth working ... farm fields in Texas," and that recollection may have contributed to his comment. From the perspective of a long-time Florida driver, I cannot ever recall seeing a cotton field here, except in the panhandle.
Nonetheless, there is undoubtedly agriculture in central Florida. Anyone who has never engaged in agriculture should never doubt that the work on a farm is intense, hard, and persistent. There are many farm tasks that I would certainly see as punishment.
But the real point is not whether this or that punishment is appropriate. The point is in two parts:
- There is some chance the judge intended the comment as light-hearted; the uncle reportedly laughed. But there is no room in judicial proceedings for humor, and increasingly no room in society. See My Way (December 2025).
- Intent is not ever the point. Comments are interpreted by the listener, not the speaker.
Judges should focus on this and simply avoid humor attempts in proceedings. See Humor and Failure (August 2022); Laugh and the World Laughs With You (August 2019); Science or Art (November 2023); My Way (December 2025); Night Court (May 2025); Funny or Offensive (October 2022).
In Funny or Offensive (October 2022), I explore when it is seemingly acceptable for a judge to tell untoward jokes. The answer is never. And yet it is periodically experienced. Sure, one might say "she got away with it," or "it was not as bad as ________." That never worked in grade school.
Those deflections may make the speaker feel better, but they will not change the fact that someone perceived the comments as offensive. Judges should simply stick to the business at hand.
Of course, accept that people in legal proceedings are uncomfortable. Nonetheless, ease that with compassion, persistence, and patience.
Leave the humor to the comedians, the public forums, and the non-judicial. No hearing is the place; the judge is not the humorist. The reception may be an illusory acceptance or a laugh, but the real result is unlikely to be reflected in the audience faced with judicial attempts at humor.
