Florida Limits Facebook Friendship between Judges and Lawyers
No surprise that a judicial ethics opinion would restrict Judges from becoming Facebook friends with lawyers who appear before them as it might give the impression of bias, but actually the opinion is broader and extends to any social networking site.
The impact of this Florida Ethics Advisory is difficult to predict, because the Florida Ethics Opinion stated “This opinion should not be interpreted to mean that the inquiring judge is prohibited from identifying any person as a "friend" on a social networking site. Instead, it is limited to the facts presented by the inquiring judge, related to lawyers who may appear before the judge.”
Where Is Social Networking Headed for the Judiciary?
Judges are elected to office in many states and in Texas (my home state) Judges run in partisan elections, however in the larger metropolitan communities few citizens know the Judicial candidates, only the lawyers. So lawyers are the normally the only ones to support political campaign and we even publicly endorse Judicial candidates. Contributing money in support of Judicial candidate sounds more biased that merely being a friend on Facebook.
Good one Peter. Does seem peculiar and contradictory since "Contributing money in support of Judicial candidates sounds more biased than merely being a friend on Facebook." Perhaps it's the linguistics of "friend" versus "supporter" or "contributor"?
After all, language, and the sounds, words, meanings, and rules that comprise it, are part of, as well as a reflection of, the culture that creates and uses that language. And currently US culture does not seem to be particularly concerned with the potential bias of political campaign contributions, pharmaceutical company funding of university medical research, or other forms of what some have called "institutionalized bribery." In the case of Facebook, however, since it represents a new way of connecting, it appears that more traditional societal values regarding the potential for bias were applied in this ruling.
Time will tell if this is just a blip on the screen or if it represents a sign that the cultural pendulum is pondering a swing away from spin and double speak and towards honesty and candor. One hopes it is the latter.