CONTEMPT

Fines and jail time for contempt used to be one of the ways that courts could encourage an aura of respectfulness around the court's functioning -- sort of the judicial equivalent of punishment for blasphemy. In India, contempt is still an important weapon in the judicial arsenal, as the case of Arundhati Roy shows. (See also this list of articles on the case.)

In the U.S., contempt has been narrowed steadily since the nineteenth century. For an amusing contempt case coming out of Ohio -- having to do with a vulgar phrase on a check for a traffic violation -- read this article in the Plain Dealer, and you can also access the case from the Ninth District Court of Appeals in Ohio, here (word document).