NJ municipal judge admonished for wearing Palestinian attire to training

New Jersey’s top judge has publicly admonished an East Orange municipal judge for wearing a traditional Palestinian scarf and a baseball cap embroidered with the Palestinian flag to a judicial training conference.

Judge Steven Brister’s hat and black-and-white checkered scarf, known as a keffiyeh, violated a state judicial conduct rule that requires judges to uphold the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the court, New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Stuart Rabner said in an order filed Wednesday.

Rabner dismissed two other charges the court’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct had filed against Brister in March, including that he violated rules barring political speech and requiring judges to observe high standards of conduct and avoid the appearance of impropriety. The court’s six other justices unanimously joined Rabner’s order.

Brister originally had declined to remove the cap when asked and said he wore the scarf for religious reasons and the hat because it matched his outfit and was raining.

But in an affidavit he filed earlier this month, Brister acknowledged his garb “may have displayed an insensitivity to some attendees” of the conference, which was held in June 2025 at a Bergen County hotel and drew more than 400 judges and court staff. He requested public admonishment as his punishment.

“Given my position as a Municipal Judge, and given the nature of the event, it was of paramount importance that the integrity and independence of the judiciary be upheld. My failure to recognize the potential impact of my attire fell short of the high standards and expectations of my office,” Brister wrote. “Regardless of intent, better choices could have and should have been made, particularly in the face of communicated offense by some attendees of the conference.”

The public admonishment comes five years after Brister was suspended for 30 days for making misogynistic comments to a man facing domestic violence charges.

In that case, he told investigators his remarks were “well-meaning but undeniably misguided” and were rooted in his religious beliefs in the biblical story that Eve was created from Adam’s rib.