{"id":10259,"date":"2015-03-30T22:01:11","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T05:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=10259"},"modified":"2015-04-13T21:29:13","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T04:29:13","slug":"el-pasos-federal-courthouse-body-shirts-and-the-u-s-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=10259","title":{"rendered":"El Paso’s Federal Courthouse, Body Shirts and The U.S. Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, TEXAS<\/strong> –<\/p>\n

\u201cTrial courts are obligated to take every reasonable measure to accommodate public attendance at criminal trials.” U.S. Supreme Court \u00a0– \u00a0Presley v. Georgia (2010)\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
El Paso Federal Courthouse completed in 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s summer 2014 in El Paso.<\/p>\n

The sixth floor is nearly empty at the federal courthouse. \u00a0I wait for U.S. Magistrate Robert Castaneda to begin his hearings.\u00a0 There are two of us in the hallway \u2013 a guy who said his name is Jorge and I.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m wearing a blue coat loaned to me from the private company hired to provide security for the courthouse.<\/p>\n

Earlier, I was told by courthouse security guard Mr. Sanchez that I had to wear a coat to get inside the courtroom. \u00a0After getting past the metal detector and waiting for nearly an hour outside the courtroom he decides to spring the coat rule on me.<\/p>\n

I admit that I’m not happy. I ask: \u201cWhere is the closet with the coats and ties in case somebody forgets to wear a coat or tie?\u201d<\/p>\n

There isn’t one.<\/p>\n

When then U.S. District Judge Lucius Bunton<\/a> had his coat-and-tie rule, I told Mr. Sanchez that the judge kept a closet full of coats and a box full of ties.\u00a0 I covered the federal courthouse when I worked for the El Paso Herald-Post and the El Paso Times. Everybody knew Bunton\u2019s dress code. Everyone complied.<\/p>\n

No problem.<\/p>\n

Is the dress code posted on the courthouse website or at the front entrance of the building or do you guys assume that everybody who walks into the federal building is able to read minds? I ask sarcastically.<\/p>\n

Nobody seems to know the dress code and that cell phones are not allowed inside the building until they try to walk into the building. The only people who can take a cell phone into the federal building in El Paso are attorneys.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sanchez talks to his boss via radio. The boss said they would be able to lend me a coat to get inside the courtroom.<\/p>\n

I was lucky.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jorge, who preferred not to give his last name, is sitting two benches down on the sixth floor.<\/p>\n

One of the guards standing beside the metal detector near the entrance of the federal building told Jorge that he would need to buy a shirt or he couldn’t get into the courtroom.<\/p>\n

Jorge told me he lives across the border in Juarez and as a favor for a family friend, he agreed to go to the federal court in El Paso and find out why Elsee Torres had been busted by the feds.<\/p>\n

Not too familiar with the downtown courthouses, Jorge said he first went to the state courthouse across the street from the new federal courthouse. They then directed him to the old federal courthouse across the street from the state courthouse.<\/p>\n

From there, Jorge\u00a0was\u00a0told that those criminal hearings were being held at the new federal building adjacent to the old federal courthouse.<\/p>\n

When he finally got to the new federal courthouse, which was constructed in 2010, the security guard standing near the metal detector stops him. \u00a0Jorge can’t go inside the building. He has a body shirt. Jorge\u00a0said he left, hurried to a low-end clothing store a \u00a0block away and asked a store salesman to sell him the cheapest shirt they had: \u00a0Price tag – $3.00.<\/p>\n

He bought it and put it on, it got inside the federal building and went up to Magistrate Castaneda’s courtroom.<\/p>\n

My loaner coat and Jorge’s new shirt assure us passage inside the courtroom. We are going to get into a United States courtroom.<\/p>\n

No sooner do we walk into the courtroom, when I observe\u00a0other people walk in wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes. I count four pair of blue jeans and several pair of tennis shoes. \u00a0More than a dozen criminal defendants sit in the courtroom. They are dressed in government-issued, dark-blue federal jail jump suits.<\/p>\n

I am over dressed at these initial criminal hearings.<\/p>\n

The Taxpayer Funded Federal Ghost Town in El Paso<\/strong><\/p>\n

The federal courthouse in El Paso makes a ghost town look crowded.\u00a0Maybe, it’s because I was there on a Friday afternoon on a hot September day. But I have been there on other days of the week, and there is not that much difference.<\/p>\n

It might also be that inside of the building the environment is unfriendly, very unwelcoming.<\/p>\n

I like courthouses. \u00a0Courtrooms are\u00a0some of the most fascinating places on the planet. But this is from someone who has covered more than 120 murder trials, not to mention hundreds criminal and civil hearings and trials.<\/p>\n

Most people go to the zoo to see the gorillas or visit historical sites while on vacation – I will sometimes visit courtrooms, call me crazy, but the characters, story plots, wealth of legal information, conflicts, triumphs, frustration, bickering, drama, the\u00a0whole gamut of emotional twists and turns – that in seconds can turn from joy to tears to rage – \u00a0can be found inside courtrooms.<\/p>\n

The federal and state robed gods who sit on the benches are interesting to watch: \u00a0Some are abrasive, rude and curt. Others are patient, compassionate and understanding. There is little in between.<\/p>\n

Judge Lucius Bunton’s sense of humor was off the charts, and he made jurors laugh, smile and feel good about being in his courtroom. I loved watching him preside over cases.<\/p>\n

The things a person can learn inside a courtroom are incredible, not just about the judicial system but the testimony from medical, forensic, psychological, DNA, accounting and other experts. It’s amazing stuff.<\/p>\n

The Phone Calls and Emails<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who makes up these dress and cell phone rules at federal courthouses? Well, everybody who believes he or she knows what is best for the community.<\/p>\n

After weeks and months of going back and forth with emails and phone calls to the following people – \u00a0Charles Hall, the spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in Washington D.C.;<\/strong> Tom Hilburger, divisional office manager at U.S. District Court in El Paso<\/strong> and Melesio Hernandez Sr., the chief deputy U.S. Marshal’s Office in San Antonio and back to the U.S. Court Administration in Washington D.C. –\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0I finally got some answers, and some good news.<\/p>\n

In January, U.S. District Court Judge Philip Martinez thought I had legitimate concerns and ordered that the rules about the dress code be put at the front entrance of the El Paso’s federal courthouse, said Mr. Melesio Hernandez.<\/p>\n

I had been told that I was wearing a body shirt and that is why they were asking that I wear a coat to get inside the courtroom. \u00a0I said I was wearing a black body shirt with a pocket, dress pants and shoes. I noted that I\u2019ve always wore a coat and tie while covering the courts for more than 18 years as a newspaper reporter.<\/p>\n

Hey, it’s also summer in El Paso, which means the only people wearing coats and ties are lawyers, bankers or unshaven, disheveled people bundled up and pushing shopping carts with personal belongings. \u00a0It isn’t unusual to have back-to-back 100-degree-plus temperatures.<\/p>\n

And I am \u00a0on vacation.<\/p>\n

What About Cell Phones?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then, I threw a monkey wrench into my phone conversation with Mr. Hernandez: \u00a0“What about cell phones?”<\/p>\n

Silence.<\/p>\n

“That is another issue,” he said.<\/p>\n

I explained that the El Paso federal courthouse only allows attorneys to go into the courtroom with cell phones. \u00a0So the security guards turn people away who aren’t attorneys who have cell phones. So people have to walk back to their \u00a0parked cars to leave their cell phones inside their vehicles.<\/p>\n

In January, two years earlier, I walked into the El Paso federal courthouse with a cell phone. No cell phones.\u00a0 Frustrated, I said, “you’ve got to be kidding?” \u00a0It was cold. I told them I had just walked three blocks, and why wasn’t this policy posted on the entrance or website?<\/p>\n

On this very slow January day, the security guards were nice enough to keep my cell phone and give it back when I was leaving.<\/p>\n

I asked Mr. Hernandez:<\/p>\n

“What about people who ride the bus or have someone drop them off at the federal courthouse and don’t know about the cell phone policy? What are they supposed to do with their cell phones?”<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr. Melesio Hernandez said: “That’s another issue.”<\/p>\n

Last week, Mr. Hernandez said the El Paso federal courthouse will now have lockboxes where people can store their cell phone while they are in the building and retrieve them when they leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate you bringing it to my attention because it\u2019s something that needs to be looked at,\u201d he said. \u201cWe definitely don\u2019t want to be in the business of inconveniencing members of the public that go into the building to observe a hearing or participate in a hearing.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

El Paso and San Antonio are federal courthouses assigned to the\u00a0Western District of Texas<\/strong> but have different cell phone rules.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hernandez said the judges in San Antonio allow people to bring cell phones into the courtrooms as long as they are turned off in court \u2013 period. Photography or texting aren\u2019t allowed, he said<\/p>\n

The 94 Federal Judicial Districts in the United States<\/strong><\/p>\n

It would be easy to use El Paso as an example of how a judges\u2019 dress code rules and cell phone policies can make it hard for the public to get inside a courtroom.<\/p>\n

The truth of\u00a0the matter is that there are 94 federal court districts<\/strong> where more than 660 judges<\/strong> are assigned. These districts include the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Also, three territories of the United States — the Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands — have district courts that hear federal cases, including bankruptcy cases.<\/p>\n

Want to know whether there is a dress code or cell phone policy at a federal courthouse? Don’t bother to look at the websites, in most cases, nothing seems to be posted on dress codes or cell phone policies.<\/p>\n

Unlike the Pentagon or the Department of Justice where there are uniform policies, Mr. Hall<\/strong> said the federal government allows judges from each of the 94 districts to decide what people can wear and whether they can take cell phones inside courtrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless we specifically say, \u2018you have to do something or you can\u2019t do something,\u2019 then, it is an enormous latitude for judges at the local level to go whichever way they want as long they aren\u2019t actually violating a mandatory national policy or an act of Congress,\u201d said Mr. Hall.<\/p>\n

He said a study was done a few years ago on what the policy was for personal electronics, and it varied. Mr. Hall said some court districts like El Paso don\u2019t allow the public to walk into the building with cell phones.<\/p>\n

On the other end of the spectrum there are federal courts that allow reporters to bring laptops inside courtrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just a small number,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It is a \u201cbroad acceptance\u201d that the judges assigned to each federal courthouse know what is best for their community as far as a dress code and cell phone policies, Mr. Hall said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hall said people who want to offer suggests, comments or criticism regarding the nation’s federal courthouses rules and policies can contact the U.S. Courts’ Judicial Conference<\/a>, which meets twice a year.<\/p>\n

“I think the issues you are raising are really good, public service issues,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some Guards Enforce No-Photos Rules Outside Courthouses<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u00a0United States Courts web \u00a0site<\/a>\u00a0also welcomes and encourages visitors to courthouses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith certain very limited exceptions, each step of the federal judicial process is open to the public. Many federal courthouses are historic buildings, and all are designed to inspire in the public a respect for the tradition and purpose of the American judicial process,\u201d according to court officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn individual citizen who wishes to observe a court in session may go to the federal courthouse, check the court calendar, and watch a proceeding. Anyone may review the pleadings and other papers in a case by going to the clerk of court\u2019s office and asking for the appropriate case file.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, some of the security guards haven’t received the memo about “historic buildings” that are “designed to inspire…etc.”<\/p>\n

In 2013, a man was arrested for standing on the sidewalk taking photographs of the Phoenix federal courthouse. He was immediately released after a U.S. attorney found what he was doing wasn\u2019t illegal.<\/p>\n