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After a contentious four-minute argument, Municipal Court judge Stephen F. Belden decided he had had just about enough of defendant Harry Brown's mouth. So he had his bailiff shut it with duct tape.

Belden said he first heard of this unconventional way of maintaining order in the court at a training session, but hadn't had to resort to it during his previous 12 years on the bench.

For his part, Brown, who was silenced during a pretrial hearing on charges of shoplifting and fighting with Wal-Mart security guards, claims that he lost some mustache hairs during the duct tape's painful removal, and is thinking of filing a complaint with the Ohio Supreme Court.

This may be an uphill battle for Brown, for despite our founding fathers' clear love of justice and facial hair, the Sixth Amendment contains no provision for a defendant's right to an intact mustache.