Andrea Burton, a Black attorney who works in Youngstown, Ohio, was sentenced to five days in jail by a court judge for refusing to remove a Black Lives Matter pin from her outfit. Burton was taken into custody but was later released, and there is an appeal underway for the sentencing.
Local outlet WKBN reports that Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Robert Milich found Burton in contempt of court last Friday after she didn’t remove the pin. Judge Milich handed down the sentence and later added that Burton can remain out of jail during the appeals process so long as she doesn’t express any political statements in court.
WKBN reports:
“A judge doesn’t support either side,” he said. “A judge is objective and tries to make sure everyone has an opportunity to have a fair hearing, and it was a situation where it was just in violation of the law,” he said.
The Youngstown branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said its legal counsel is monitoring the case closely as it may violate Burton’s civil rights.
A statement issued Friday from Youngstown NAACP President George Freeman, Jr. questioned whether Burton had violated the law. He has contacted the national NAACP’s legal office for assistance.
“We will do all that the NAACP Youngstown can do to ensure that Attorney Burton’s Constitutional rights are not being violated,” he said.
In an interview with local outlet WFMJ, Burton explained the reasoning why she wore the pin and why she decided to defy the judge’s order to remove it.
“It’s an act of civil disobedience I understand that. I’m not anti-police I work with law enforcement and I hold them in the highest regard, and just to say for the record I do believe all lives matter. But at this point they don’t all matter equally, and that’s a problem in the justice system,” said Burton.
Burton added that her First Amendment Rights should override the judge’s orders, but experts have conceded widely that judges typically have a wide range of power of what can be worn and expressed in a court of law.
Support for Burton has popped up online in the form of the #AndreaBurton hashtag on Twitter. Follow the conversation here and we’ve also featured some of the discussion below and on the following pages.
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Photo: WFMJ
