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In 1973, Mr Justice Megarry, set to hear a rural property dispute, said that the power of a court didn’t depend on superficial things such as the wig and gown of the judge. He was planning to take the court to the site but to attend unrobed. He said there was no need to get hung up on “mere matters of attire”.

Mere matters of attire, however, did become a problem for Judge Robert Somma recently. When the federal bankruptcy judge from Boston, Massachusetts, was arrested after a drink-driving incident he was taken from his car in clothes unusual even for a judge: a black cocktail dress, fishnet stockings and high heels. With a proper detachment, the official police report — which doesn’t cite the judge’s dress — does note that he “had a difficult time locating his licence in his purse”.

The judge has now pleaded guilty to the drink-driving offence and resigned. It would be contentious, though, if the resignation was connected with his dress preference. Certainly, for the guilty plea to a first offence misdemeanour such as the driving offence, the US Courts for the First Circuit would not demand a judge’s resignation, although, of course, a court punishment would be imposed. No-one was hurt in the incident, in which the judge’s vehicle knocked into a truck at a traffic light. The 63-year old judge has a flawless judicial record and has attracted praise from lawyers and officials for his extensive knowledge and invariable fairness. The chief executive of the First Circuit described him as “an absolutely excellent judge”.

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If other judges have continued to sit following guilty pleas to the same sort of drink-driving offence, and if it was the judge’s off-duty dress that was his unbuttoning, that would be curious. Other judges have been known to have had some odd lawful private peccadilloes without having to resign. Even in exercising judicial functions, English judges have sometimes done so in unusual garb including Sir Lancelot Shadwell in a swimsuit while bathing in the Thames, and Sir Samuel Evans in a dressing-gown in his bedroom.

Professor Gary Slapper is Director of the Centre for Law at The Open University

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