An Essex County, N.J., judge’s use of obscenities on the bench to get his point across is certain to get him disciplined. The only question is whether his conduct was bad enough to warrant a time-out.

That in turn depends upon whether the court system’s disciplinarians find that personal tragedies and other stresses in Judge F. Michael Giles’ life mitigate against a suspension — the sanction imposed upon Wilbur Mathesius, the last judge disciplined for intemperate speech.