U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf penned a blog post Tuesday "on being a dirty old man and how young women lawyers dress," where he gave "three rules that young women lawyers should follow when considering how to dress for court."
"In candor, I have been a dirty old man ever since I was a very young man," Kopf says in the post, which appeared on “Hercules and the Umpire," his personal blog that he said he'd quit using in January.
The post begins with a story about a family "kerfuffle" over his daughter wearing a "low-cut dress" to a wedding and transitions into a story of "a wonderfully talented and very pretty female lawyer" who "wears very short skirts and shows lots of her ample chest."
"I especially appreciate the last two attributes," Kopf writes of the female lawyer's looks.
Kopf then gives his rules for women in the courtroom:
From the foregoing, and in my continuing effort to educate the bar, I have three rules that young women lawyers should follow when considering how to dress for court:
1. You can’t win. Men are both pigs and prudes. Get over it.
2. It is not about you. That goes double when you are appearing in front of a jury.
3. Think about the female law clerks. If they are likely to label you, like Jane Curtin, an ignorant slut behind your back, tone it down.
On Wednesday, Kopf published a "Post Script to yesterday's (infamous) post" urging people to read a column by Erin Grace in the Omaha World Herald that argues the judge should be remembered for raising "the important issues... not for his latest reflections, on being a dirty old man."
"I do care passionately that federal trial judges be seen as individuals with all the strengths and weakness (baggage) that everyone else carries around," Kopf wrote in his follow-up post. "If, on balance, you think the post was harmful to the image of the federal judiciary and truly treated women as objects, I am very, very, very sorry for that, but I would ask you to pause and reread it. I hope you will find upon objective reflection that the mockery I make of myself and the hyperbole and somewhat mordant tone I employed, made a point worth considering."
(h/t TPM)
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