Attorney Mariah Medina carries a piece of advice from a mentor into every courtroom fight, and this week it applied to a sleeveless dress.
“One of my mentors once told me, ‘You can be the attorney that fights. Or you can be the attorney that goes along to get along. There are benefits to both. There are cons to both. But you can’t be both’,” Medina recalled.
Medina, 32, practices criminal defense in San Antonio. She spent years as a television news reporter before law, and she has been an attorney for about a year.
On Monday, she walked into a Bexar County courtroom for a trial announcement docket that lasted two minutes. The judge stopped her before she could leave and ordered her to approach the bench.
“She inspected my outfit and chuckled and said, ‘Do you really think this is appropriate?’ And I said ‘yes’,” Medina told The Post on Wednesday.
Judge Yolanda Huff, 61, has served on the bench since 2019. She described Medina’s garment as a “tank top.” Medina answered that it was a shift dress.
Medina took a photo outside the Bexar County Government building and posted it to X the same day. “This is what I was wearing today when a judge said that I was inappropriately dressed for court,” she wrote.
The dress cost her about $30 on sale at J.Crew.
She told The Post that she views it as acceptable business attire, and that colleagues often wear similar outfits, especially during the hot San Antonio summers.
She also described her reasoning in the post.
“It’s a dress I’ve worn on air countless times and a dress that I have worn to other courts without issue,” she said. She wrote that she chose it over a blouse that allegedly revealed more cleavage.
Medina pointed to the judge’s own list of banned clothing.
“She has a list of things that she forbids in court re: attire, but this is not on that list. I grew up in a conservative church and I was truly confused. It’s appropriate length, doesn’t expose cleavage… it’s a J Crew dress for crying out loud, not a Hoochies Anonymous Club,” she said.
Bexar County Criminal Court rules require business attire from all attorneys and court officials. The same rules permit business casual dress when an individual judge allows it.
Medina said she will comply in Huff’s courtroom.
“I respect the authority of the court. And I will wear a blazer to cover up [if asked],” she said. She insisted she would never disrespect a court on purpose.
Her post drew strong reactions from both sides.
“A shift dress is a shift dress If it’s been acceptable everywhere else, I’d be confused too,” one commenter wrote. Another countered: “If a judge says it’s inappropriate to wear in their courtroom. It’s inappropriate. End of discussion.”
Several women in the legal field also sent Medina harsh messages after the post spread. They criticized the dress and her decision to publicize the exchange.
“The number of women attorneys who are just so ugly on the internet, I was like, ‘this is so strange’,” Medina said.
Her own office responded differently. According to Medina, male colleagues are organizing a gesture of support.
“Other male colleagues have been plotting something to stand in solidarity with me. One lawyer in my office purchased a suit that has shorts instead of full on dress pants,” she said.
The sharpest message came from Massachusetts. A male attorney there sent Medina a private email.
“Good luck the rest of your ‘career,’ which is pretty much a nonstrater [sic] after this monumental gaffe. Smarten up lady,” he wrote.
Medina replied with a link to his lengthy disciplinary record.
“I don’t think you are qualified to be giving professional advice, but definitely don’t lose that confidence and audacity that made you feel like you were!” she told him.
She intends to wear a blazer the next time she appears before Huff. She says that decision does not mean she is easy to push around.
Medina has kept her humor through the attention.
“Texas has the strongest right to bear arms, but when it comes to ‘bare arms,’ that right ends between the shoulder and the elbow, I guess,” she said.
