On : Holey chones: San Antonio judge criticized for video of mock trial over boxers at South Side laundry Speedlin Gonzalez also is appealing a separate, public admonition issued by the commission for her social media posts congratulating lawyers after they won jury verdicts in her court. Robertson argued that the flag created the appearance of a partisan bias. “That flag is a flag that symbolizes equality,” she said under direct questioning by attorney Phil Robertson, the commission’s lawyer. It is one of the county’s two misdemeanor courts that focus on family violence cases.Īrguing before a three-judge panel assembled by the commission in the Texas Supreme Court’s courtroom, Speedlin Gonzalez said the flag is not a political statement, but a symbol of inclusiveness, self-acceptance, unity and pride for a community that she says has been long oppressed and made to feel separate from everyone else. The complaint was filed by a lawyer who found it offensive and sought to move all his cases from Bexar County Court-at-Law No.
flags for about 10 months after she took office in 2019, but she took it down and moved it into her chambers after a complaint about it resulted in a private warning by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. It was on the wall with the Texas and U.S. Testimony at the special trial to decide her appeal took hours and a ruling might not come for months.
The case: what is the difference between government speech and free speech? It pitted the sometimes secretive commission that oversees the Texas judiciary against Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, who was trying to get out from under the panel’s discipline.īexar County’s first openly gay Latina elected to a bench argued that her right to display a rainbow Pride Flag in her courtroom was protected by the First Amendment. Josie Norris, San Antonio Express-News / Staff Photographer Show More Show LessĪUSTIN - The grilling of a witness by a lawyer in the state’s highest civil courtroom was polite but heavy on legal hair-splitting - and it was a judge from San Antonio in the hot seat. (Darren Abate/For the Express-News) Darren Abate, FRE / Darren Abate/San Antonio Express-News Show More Show Less 4 of4Ĭounty Court-at-Law Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, shown in 2019, was reprimanded and sanctioned by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct for displaying a rainbow flag in her courtroom, but the panel has ignored the flamboyant accessories of other judges in Bexar County, she argued in a hearing Thursday. Marvin Pfeiffer, Staff photographer Show More Show Less 3 of4Ĭounty Court-at-Law Judge Wayne Christian presides over Veterans Treatment Court in 2017 in his trademark camouflage robe. Carruthers, shown at a bond hearing in 2019, wears a robe trimmed with African textile colors. Bob Owen, Staff Photographer / Staff photographer Show More Show Less 2 of4 Bexar County Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez hears cases in the County Court 13 at the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center in 2019.