New Jersey's top court has publicly admonished East Orange municipal judge Steven Brister for wearing a Palestinian-flag baseball cap and a keffiyeh to a judicial training conference last year, ruling that the attire crossed a line meant to protect the judiciary's independence and integrity. The order, filed Wednesday, closes out a disciplinary saga that began when Brister refused a supervising judge's request to take off the hat in front of hundreds of colleagues.
According to the New Jersey Globe, the incident happened at a June 2025 conference in Bergen County that drew more than 400 judges and court employees. New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner signed the order, with the court's other six justices joining unanimously, and found that Brister's attire violated a judicial conduct rule requiring judges to uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary. The court dismissed the remaining charges brought against him, including an allegation that he engaged in prohibited political activity.
Brister had initially declined to remove the cap when asked, and told those who pressed him that he wore it because it was raining that day and it matched his outfit, per the same account. He separately explained the keffiyeh as a religious choice. As NJ Advance Media reported, his legal defense maintained that the cap was for style and weather and the keffiyeh was for religious purposes, and that he never intended for his attire to constitute a political statement or to make any statement at all.
How the Case Moved Through the Disciplinary Process
The Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct charged Brister in March with violating rules against political speech and rules requiring high standards of conduct and avoidance of apparent impropriety, NJ Advance Media reported. The committee's formal complaint in the matter of Steven Brister, a judge of the Municipal Court, is dated March 4, 2026, according to the New Jersey Courts press release announcing it. Throughout the proceedings, Brister consistently characterized the clothing as religious, personal, stylistic or weather-related rather than political, the outlet's reporting noted.
Brister ultimately requested public admonishment as his punishment. In an October 2 affidavit, he said his failure to recognize the potential impact of his attire fell short of the standards and expectations of his office, and that better choices could have and should have been made, as reported by the New Jersey Monitor. He acknowledged his clothing may have been insensitive to some conference attendees, even as he maintained he had not meant it as a political statement.
A Judge Already Under Scrutiny
This is not Brister's first run-in with the state's judicial discipline system. The Supreme Court suspended him for 30 days in 2021 over comments he made to a man facing domestic-violence charges, NJ Advance Media reported. He told investigators at the time that his remarks were well-meaning but misguided and rooted in religious beliefs about Eve's creation from Adam's rib.
Brister serves as a part-time municipal court judge in East Orange and as an acting judge in Newark and Orange, according to NJ Advance Media's reporting. A court-record document from Brister's separate 2021 disciplinary matter, posted by New Jersey Courts, cites a conduct provision requiring judges to remain impartial and to avoid discriminating based on race, creed, color, sex, gender identity or expression, or religion, and bars judges from manifesting bias or prejudice through words or conduct.
The New Jersey Monitor reported on the Supreme Court's order Wednesday. With the admonishment now final and the political-activity charge dismissed, Brister's disciplinary record stands with two separate sanctions spanning five years — one for remarks made from the bench, the other for what he wore to a professional training far from any courtroom.
