Tenn. judge orders dress code for female attorneys

Cover up. That was the order of one judge in a Tennessee court, fed up with the revealing attire frequently worn by female attorneys.

He ordered a dress code for Rutherford County court-goers, The Tennessean reported.

Circuit Judge Royce Taylor said he’s heard too many complaints about female attorneys who choose too-short miniskirt, revealing blouses — or even sweatpants. He’s put the women on notice: Dress appropriately or don’t come to court.

“All you have to do is go to church and see what people used to wear — hats, goes, long dresses — have long been gone away with,” Mr. Taylor said, in The Tennessean. “But I found that county judges here weren’t holding women to the same standard as men.”

Mr. Taylor has put out an official dress code advisement in the Rutherford County Bar’s latest newsletter. In it, he suggests to “some women attorneys that a jacket with sleeves below the elbow is appropriate, or a professional dress equivalent,” The Tennessean reported.

One female attorney said she was “slightly offended” at the judge’s dress code, but said she understood. “Some ladies are dressing in a manner that should be bothersome to other lady lawyers who strive to be professional,” she said, in The Tennessean.

Another, however, said the dress code singled out women — and that unfair and discriminatory.