I suspect that a judge finding someone whose cell-phone went
off during proceedings in contempt could, in turn, find himself
charged with judicial misconduct. There's a word for that kind
of abuse of power: 'corruption.'

What about people with 'chime' watches, or 'alarm' watches?

It borders on the ridiculous, what people become offended by.
And they make the problem worse by their own self-righteousness.

Instead of just taking the phone out and hitting the 'silence'
button, which takes less than a second, people are now to be so
ashamed of their over-sight that they just let the damned thing ring
away in their pocket rather than face the disapproving glare of their
neighbors--- whose own phones rang in the middle of a meeting the
previous week.

It's gotten to be like farting in an elevator.