On April 20, 2015, the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct publicly admonished and ordered additional education on the ethical use of social media to a Texas judge that posted on her Facebook page regarding matters pending before her court.
According to the decision, the judge maintained a public Facebook page set up with the intent “that it would be the most efficient way to fulfill [her] campaign promise and [her] own goals of educating the public about our courts.” However, the Commission disagreed and held that, “despite her contention that the information she provided was public information, Judge Slaughter cast reasonable doubt upon her own impartiality and violated her own admonition to jurors by turning to media to publicly discuss cases pending in her court, giving rise to a legitimate concern that she would not be fair or impartial in the Wieseckel case or in other high-profile cases”. The Commission concluded that the judge violated Canons 3(10) and 4A of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct and Article V, Section 1-a(6) of the Texas Constitution.
The Public Admonition and Ordered of Additional Education entered on April 20, 2015, is available at https://s3.amazonaws.com… Open Pdf
More information is available at http://www.abajournal.com…, at http://www.houstonchronicle.com… and at http://www.bbc.com…
Follow us on& Like us on