by Airi Tilley, ALC Court Watch Volunteer Coordinator
Last month, Judge Rangos of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas ordered a Court Watch staff member to be removed from her courtroom because of … a t-shirt. The shirt in question bore the slogan for Solidarity Not Solitary, our statewide campaign against solitary confinement in Pennsylvania carceral facilities.
The reason? The shirt was “too political”, the bailiff reported Rangos had said.
Though our staffer wore the same shirt in two other courtrooms, only Rangos objected. Our staff member was allowed back into the courtroom, only after turning the shirt inside out.
To be clear, one has every right to wear that shirt in the courtroom. There are courthouse rules about “appropriate” attire that list the types of clothing that are forbidden (for being overly casual or revealing). They also forbid t-shirts with “inappropriate language, pictures, or logos.”
But there is no rule about political expression because that’s a First Amendment right. Moreover, court watchers have seen people wearing shirts that support right-wing candidates and ideas who have not been removed.
That should be the bottom line. Constitutional rights. Fairness.
But in this system, those with power make the rules.
Why ban a shirt supporting basic human rights? For over a century, solitary confinement has been recognized as torturous, including by the United Nations. Yet, at any given time, more than 2,000 Pennsylvanians are being held in solitary—typically for offenses as minor as having a ketchup packet, or due to understaffing, or because a guard just felt like it. Last week, ALC, allies, formerly incarcerated people & their families rallied in Harrisburg in support of a forthcoming state bill that would put limits on the use of solitary confinement in PA county jails, state prisons, and detention facilities.
Judge Rangos finds this issue too political? Our entire carceral system is political. Historically underserved communities starved of resources while bearing the brunt of aggressive policing is political. The rampant overrepresentation of people of color, people with mental illness and disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people in jails and prisons – and in solitary confinement! – is political. The decision to have carceral facilities that function as sites of torture is political.
Any official charged with serving the public must recognize that their actions are inherently political, including banning a t-shirt from a courtroom.
And if they don’t? Well, this is yet another example of why we need more eyes in the court.
Court Watch observes court proceedings to document what is happening to our neighbors caught up in the system. Without those eyes & ears, and even with them, miscarriages of justice are rampant. Both children & adults appearing before the bench are regularly treated as second-class subjects to be disposed of, without the barest semblance of fairness & compassion, much less justice. Data we’ve collected on court proceedings appear in reports we’ve issued in recent years. And placing our bodies in space lends support to those ensnared by the system, making a palpable shift in the courtroom environment, as it did that day.
Interested in becoming a court watcher? Sign up for our next monthly orientation here.