Being a federal judge has its perks. You get to lash out against a group of students who ask you to explain your reasoning and the dean of Stanford will jump to your defense. You get to turn decisions into targeted job applications for the Supreme Court in hopes that the sitting president will notice you. Hell, if you’re a Supreme enough judge, you can even show love to insurrectionists! But the bar for punishment is a lot lower for state judges. Law360 has coverage:
A Florida state court judge found to have violated judicial canons by donating funds to the election campaigns of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and improperly discussing her own reelection campaign has been hit with a 10-day suspension by the Sunshine State’s high court.
In a per curiam ruling Thursday, the Supreme Court of Florida suspended Judge Stefanie C. Moon of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, publicly reprimanded her and ordered her to pay a fine of $2,115, equal to the amount of the donations she made to funds associated with the Democratic presidential candidates.
I get the money is speech argument, but the sums that have been found to violate judicial canons just seem ridiculous to me. Nonetheless, dems the rules. Judge Moon’s $2.1k is further on the spectrum than say Judge Merchan’s $35 donation to the Biden campaign, but any number over zero is too much. Rules against endorsement of any kind are so strict that one judge got reprimanded for simply liking a post endorsing a candidate on Facebook.
Now the improperly discussing her own re-election campaign prong? That seems to be fair game. Robed and at the bench, she asked a lawyer why he didn’t respond to a request to support her campaign. With a spotlight that bright on him, he probably felt like he was with the head of HR at a Coldplay concert. Remember judges, there’s a time, place, and dress code for questions like that: any other time, any other place, and any other outfit. Oh, and don’t post pool bikini pics on Instagram, but that’s neither here nor there.
Fla. Judge Suspended Over ‘Unacceptable’ Political Donations [Law360]
Earlier: Judge Gets In Trouble For Giving Good Advice And Having Fun
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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