NJ judge accused of being ‘political’ with Palestine hat and scarf

🔎 NJ municipal judge faces ethics complaint over Palestine hat, scarf

⚖️ Disciplinary filing alleges political speech at judiciary training

📍 Judge previously suspended in 2021 over controversial comments

A New Jersey municipal judge has been accused of violating a core rule of his job, engaging in any political activity.

Steven Brister is a part-time judge for East Orange as well as an acting judge in the municipal courts for Newark and Orange.

A formal complaint was filed on Monday against Brister, who has also been a practicing attorney since 1985, New Jersey Monitor first reported.

Complaint centers on Palestine hat and keffiyeh at judicial conference

Last summer, Brister attended the annual Municipal Division Conference for the Administrative Office of the Courts Judicial Education Program, held in Bergen County on June 9 and 10.

More than 400 people took part, including municipal judges, division managers and assistant managers from each vicinage, and administrative court division staff.

The two-day event involved training workshops.

On the first day, Brister showed up wearing a black baseball cap with an embroidered flag of Palestine on the front along with the word "Palestine.”

He also wore a black-and-white checkered keffiyeh draped around his neck and shoulders.

Following the morning session, the acting municipal presiding judge for the Essex district told Brister that complaints were made about his accessories, and some attendees were offended.

Brister was asked to take off his hat and he refused, telling the judge that he would not remove his baseball cap unless all attendees were instructed to remove their headgear.

He wore the hat for the rest of the day.

A municipal court presiding judge from another district and a longtime associate of Brister also approached about taking off his hat, which Brister, again, refused to do.

Judge says clothing was not meant as political statement

Later that day, in a phone conversation and text exchange between Brister and his presiding judge, Brister said he wanted to wear a hat due to rain that day and he chose the Palestine cap as it was the first on his shelf.

Brister also said he wore the keffiyeh in case it was cold inside.

Judicial regulations prohibit judges from engaging in any political activity.

Brister was interviewed under oath by staff to the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct in October.

He testified that he wore the Palestine hat because it "matched [his] outfit" and he did not view either the cap or the scarf as a political statement.

At that point, he also said he wore a keffiyeh to the training conference in part as protection against the rain as well as "for the spiritual and religious reasons."

Ethics complaint cites political speech and insubordination

According to disciplinary counsel Daniel Burns on Monday in a complaint filed with the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, “Wearing both the hat and distinctly patterned scarf “may reasonably have been interpreted by those in attendance and the broader public, as a political statement in support of Palestine in the ongoing conflict in the region at the time.”

Since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, Israel and the militant group have been at war, with tens of thousands killed and severe humanitarian conditions in Gaza and other affected areas.”

Read More: NJ Supreme Court suspends Newark Judge Steven Brister 

Burns wrote that Brister’s insubordination in refusing to remove his hat at the request of his presiding judge “demonstrated his failure to conform his conduct to the high standards expected of judges."

The same judge was suspended for a month without pay in 2021, for suggesting to a domestic violence suspect that men are “in control,” two years after he made the comments.

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