{"id":163406,"date":"2026-09-23T12:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T20:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/09\/23\/judge-puts-lawyers-sleeveless-dress-on-trial\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T12:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T20:11:07","slug":"judge-puts-lawyers-sleeveless-dress-on-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/09\/23\/judge-puts-lawyers-sleeveless-dress-on-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Puts Lawyer\u2019s Sleeveless Dress On Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women lawyers have been getting unsolicited wardrobe advice from law schools<\/a>\u2060, bar associations<\/a>\u2060, and judges for years. This time, the offending garment was a gray J.Crew shift dress. The scandalous detail that may leave you clutching your pearls? It had no sleeves. Gasp!<\/p>\n

As reported by the New York Post<\/a>\u2060, Texas defense attorney Mariah Medina says a judge called her attire \u201cinappropriate\u201d during a brief appearance in a Bexar County courtroom. Behold, the offending attire:<\/p>\n

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This is what I was wearing today when a judge said that I was inappropriately dressed for court. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a dress I\u2019ve worn on air countless times and a dress that I have worn to other courts without issue. <\/p>\n

I was confused, so I explained that it\u2019s a shift dress\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/PUIeyOKGFS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mariah Medina (@MMedinanews) September 21, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

According to Medina, the judge had her come around the bench so she could inspect the dress in front of other lawyers and defendants. The judge then asked whether Medina really thought it was suitable for a jury trial and whether she had a blazer in her car. Medina\u2019s case, however, wasn\u2019t going to trial that day.<\/p>\n

Medina was wearing a conventional, knee-length work dress. To be quite honest, there\u2019s nothing really \u201cinappropriate\u201d about it. She says it didn\u2019t violate the dress code posted outside the judge\u2019s courtroom, and went on to call the public critique \u201cmean spirited and unprofessional.\u201d Medina offered additional commentary to the Post:<\/p>\n

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The young lawyer blasted the judge but said she would cover up whenever she\u2019s in her courtroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the hill to die on and I have no problem throwing a coat on in the couple months she has left on the bench after being voted out of office.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sure, judges can set expectations for their courtrooms. But if bare shoulders are forbidden, lawyers ought to know that before a routine appearance turns into an impromptu fashion hearing.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve covered this routine before<\/a>\u2060: a woman lawyer shows up to do her job, and everyone winds up discussing her outfit. Of course a judge is entitled to enforce courtroom decorum, but calling a lawyer up for a public inspection of her perfectly ordinary work attire seems like a strange way to go about it. If professionalism is the goal, it ought to apply on both sides of the bench.<\/p>\n

Texas lawyer called out by judge for \u2018inappropriate\u2019 dress in front of entire courtroom<\/a> [New York Post]<\/p>\n

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Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to\u00a0email<\/a>\u00a0her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Judge Puts Lawyer\u2019s Sleeveless Dress On Trial<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Women lawyers have been getting unsolicited wardrobe advice from law schools<\/a>\u2060, bar associations<\/a>\u2060, and judges for years. This time, the offending garment was a gray J.Crew shift dress. The scandalous detail that may leave you clutching your pearls? It had no sleeves. Gasp!<\/p>\n

As reported by the New York Post<\/a>\u2060, Texas defense attorney Mariah Medina says a judge called her attire \u201cinappropriate\u201d during a brief appearance in a Bexar County courtroom. Behold, the offending attire:<\/p>\n

According to Medina, the judge had her come around the bench so she could inspect the dress in front of other lawyers and defendants. The judge then asked whether Medina really thought it was suitable for a jury trial and whether she had a blazer in her car. Medina\u2019s case, however, wasn\u2019t going to trial that day.<\/p>\n

Medina was wearing a conventional, knee-length work dress. To be quite honest, there\u2019s nothing really \u201cinappropriate\u201d about it. She says it didn\u2019t violate the dress code posted outside the judge\u2019s courtroom, and went on to call the public critique \u201cmean spirited and unprofessional.\u201d Medina offered additional commentary to the Post:<\/p>\n

\n

The young lawyer blasted the judge but said she would cover up whenever she\u2019s in her courtroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the hill to die on and I have no problem throwing a coat on in the couple months she has left on the bench after being voted out of office.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sure, judges can set expectations for their courtrooms. But if bare shoulders are forbidden, lawyers ought to know that before a routine appearance turns into an impromptu fashion hearing.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve covered this routine before<\/a>\u2060: a woman lawyer shows up to do her job, and everyone winds up discussing her outfit. Of course a judge is entitled to enforce courtroom decorum, but calling a lawyer up for a public inspection of her perfectly ordinary work attire seems like a strange way to go about it. If professionalism is the goal, it ought to apply on both sides of the bench.<\/p>\n

Texas lawyer called out by judge for \u2018inappropriate\u2019 dress in front of entire courtroom<\/a> [New York Post]<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to\u00a0email<\/a>\u00a0her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women lawyers have been getting unsolicited wardrobe advice from law schools\u2060, bar associations\u2060, and judges for years. This time, the offending garment was a gray J.Crew shift dress. The scandalous detail that may leave you clutching your pearls? It had no sleeves. Gasp! As reported by the New York Post\u2060, Texas defense attorney Mariah Medina […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":163407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}