The New Jersey Supreme Court has publicly admonished an East Orange municipal court judge for wearing a baseball cap bearing the Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh to a judicial training conference, accepting his admission that his attire fell short of the standards expected of judges.
Steven Brister, who also serves as an acting municipal judge in Newark and Orange, faced three judicial ethics charges after he appeared at a June 2025 conference in Bergen County attended by more than 400 judges and court employees.
In an order released Wednesday, the Supreme Court accepted Brister’s admission that he violated a judicial conduct rule requiring judges to uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary. The court dismissed the remaining charges, including an allegation that he engaged in prohibited political activity.
“I now recognize that my choice of attire at the Judiciary Municipal Education Training event … may have displayed an insensitivity to some attendees of the conference,” Brister said in an October 2 affidavit. “Regardless of intent, better choices could have and should have been made.”
Brister had refused requests from supervising judges to remove the hat after some conference attendees complained. He initially said he wore it because it was raining and it matched his outfit.
The admonition is not Brister’s first disciplinary action.
In 2021, the Supreme Court suspended him for one month without pay after he made remarks during a domestic violence case that created the appearance of gender bias.
Brister acknowledged that those comments were “well-meaning but undeniably misguided.”