{"id":461275,"date":"2026-09-12T04:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T04:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/461275\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T04:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T04:18:11","slug":"dem-appointed-california-judge-refuses-to-stop-using-n-word-in-court-despite-black-lawyers-pleas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/461275\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem-appointed California judge refuses to stop using N-word in court, despite black lawyers’ pleas"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Democrat-appointed San Francisco judge<\/a> is drawing outrage from black lawyers for stubbornly refusing to stop saying the N-word<\/a> in court.<\/p>\n

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harry Dorfman \u2013\u2013 who is white \u2013\u2013 is accused of repeatedly using the slur in court, sparking backlash among black public defenders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took me back to my childhood in Beebe, Ark., when white men in pickup trucks armed with rifles would drive by our house yelling \u2018n\u2013\u2013s\u2019 and racist chants,\u201d deputy public defender Phoenix Streets told the San Francisco Chronicle.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Deputy Probation Officer Leung is sworn in by Judge Harry Dorfman. Instagram\/sfapd<\/p>\n

Deptuy public defender Phoenix Streets. Coopers’ Code<\/p>\n

\u201cOr the father of one of my white friends saying to me, \u2018You\u2019re pretty smart for a n\u2013\u2013. You must have some white in you,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

During a court case last year, Dorfman quoted a man who had uttered the slur without the judge abbreviating it. When a defense lawyer in another case brought up the term, the judge told the lawyer to say the full word.<\/p>\n

Harry Dorfman, a judge of the San Francisco Superior Court, and Peter Furst, a defense attorney, professor, and trainer, provide training on jury trials. ucuargentina<\/p>\n

One public defender also once asked the court to stop using the word, to which Dorfman replied: \u201cNo, no, no\u2026 These are the facts of the case. If it\u2019s the evidence in the case, it\u2019s not casting any insults or offense to anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2022, San Francisco public defender Mano Raju filed a complaint against the judge<\/a> over using the slur \u201cin full in open court.\u201d The complaint claimed that Dorfman did not show \u201cawareness of the trauma its utterance inflicts and without consideration of alternatives that could ensure a sufficient record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, no action was taken against the judge, and the city\u2019s Superior Court also refused to act when Raju\u2019s office requested intervention.<\/p>\n

San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju on Monday, July 15, 2019. Raju has worked to advance excellence in public defense, protect clients\u2019 constitutional rights and advocate for a more just criminal legal system. sfpublicdefender.org<\/p>\n

Instead, Dorfman held Raju in contempt of court and fined him $26,000 in March<\/a> for refusing to take on more cases. The judge fined him $1,000 for each of the 26 people he declined to represent. <\/p>\n

Just a few weeks later, the First District Court of Appeal issued an order blocking the enforcement of the hefty fine.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dorfman was appointed to the bench by Democratic former California Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Democrat-appointed San Francisco judge is drawing outrage from black lawyers for stubbornly refusing to stop saying the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[181883,7,9,8,49719,16214,4182,266,166270,101,3586],"class_list":["post-461275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-angry","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-judges","tag-lawyers","tag-metro","tag-northern-california","tag-racial-slurs","tag-san-francisco","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}