Alternative Character Interpretation: Was the judge's ruling in Adam's case solely to rub it in Atlas' face, or did they see a potential way to get the White Fang to de-escelate, if not get members to defect? Glynda herself discusses the reasons for the ruling.
We're meant to believe that Adam wasn't a very good person at all before his arrival at Beacon; someone who would capture and execute people just to send a message, and that its only his time at Beacon that has developed him into a better person. The author has stated that Adam did unknowingly abuse Blake (we're not told exactly what he did), also had a volatile temper and lashes out, and that Blake has reason to not trust him or believe that he could change his violent ways. The problem with this is that we see almost none of this in-story. We're told Adam can be incredibly violent and spiteful, but all of his inner thoughts point towards a very reasonable if easily irritable and cynical man who has little trust in the world that oppresses his species. And while he is shown to be quite racist in early chapters, it's not unfounded (and a later chapter says that he was in an especially bad mood because of Blake's desertion). Any ideas he has of murder or excessive violence are never acted on and end with him regaining his composure and thinking of rational solutions to his problems. Even when he's being bullied and harassed he always keeps a level head. He almost never, if ever makes a point that isn't backed by some genuine logic. Aside from Ozpin, Tsune, Pyrrha and RWY, he seems like the most rational person in the story. While his enemies (former or otherwise) have genuine reason to not trust him, the story never gives any solid reason to believe he was ever a truly bad person.
This is taken even further with Blake's argument with Yang in chapter 22. Blake is trying to convince Yang that Adam is a terrible person and he is simply manipulating her, while describing what he's really like and to stay away from him. She'd be right on the mark if this were canon Adam, but he’s grown more in this story and become a more genuinely moral person (as opposed to the self-serving, manipulativemass-murderersolely out for himself that he became in canon), so her words come off as self-righteous projection of her own issues rather than valid concerns about Adam being liable to hurt his new friends.
Tsune's argument invoking He Who Fights Monsters on the now-disgraced Team CRMN comes off as this to a significant number of readers. They note how Adam literally had no other option to stop their bullying without making an example of them in a strong way that would discourage such behavior such as what Adam did during the match. This is because while Coeur attempts to invoke a Gray-and-Gray Morality in the fic itself, moments where Adam would literally be in the wrong during his time in Beacon before Chapter 11 were sparse and few in between.
Blake is seen like this by many readers by chapter 13 for her lack of understanding as to how Adam is slowly changing throughout the story. This is taken even further in chapter 17 when she displays a Never My Fault attitude when she leaks an edited video of Adam and Yang fighting that leads to Adam getting beaten by racist students in the cafeteria.
