All rise'.... or not.

Pudlow, Jan

Judges are not royalty requiring genuflection when they pass by, reasons lawyer Joe Negron. So why should a bailiff demand that 'everyone stand when a judge walks into a courtroom, the Republican legislator from Stuart asked his colleagues on the House Subcommittee on Judicial Appropriations that he chairs.

While a bevy of judges watched in silence from the spectators seats, Negron offered an amendment to the Article V bill that would prohibit agents of the state from demanding or requesting that people stand when a judge enters or exits a courtroom.

"I choose to stand up at the end of the Messiah, when the Hallelujah Chorus is sung. …