Judicial Humor

Although the law is generally a serious matter, there is a lighter side to the law that is all-too-often overlooked. Thanks to the team at Judicial Humor, however, you can easily keep informed on the entertaining, funny, and sometimes absurd side of the law. Divided into topics such as Humorous Plaintiffs, Parody & Verse, and Veiled References, Judicial Humor offers case names and citations, usually along with quotes from the decisions or brief recaps on why the case was included on the site.

Besides Judicial Humor, there are a few other websites dedicated to the lighter side of the judiciary as well. McClurg's Legal Humor Headquarters, for example, has a section devoted to Strange Judicial Opinions. Likewise, Say What?! hasn't been updated since March of 2010, but the archives are full of courtroom humor originally collected by U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer and published in a column for the Texas Bar Journal.

Of course, not everyone finds the idea of judicial humor amusing. According to Justice George Rose Smith, …Judicial humor is neither judicial nor humorous. A lawsuit is a serious matter to those concerned in it. For a judge to take advantage of his criticism-insulated, retaliation-proof position to display his wit is contemptible, like hitting a man when he's down. (21 Ark. L. Rev. 197, 210).

Likewise, in the note Judicial Humor: A Laughing Matter? (41 Hastings L.J. 175), Marshall Rudolph suggests that there are certain circumstances where judicial humor is out of place.

What's your take? Do you think a certain level of humor within the judiciary is acceptable? Is there some point where that acceptable humor becomes, in the words of George Rose Smith, contemptible?

Written by Marty Witt