Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Add Judges To The List of Professionals Who Must Take Care In Using Facebook

Post author:Stephen Boyett
Post published:December 13, 2009
Post category:Computer Law Judges & Judicial Process Legal Ethics

Professor Lisa Mazzie posted a blog entry back in September about the use of Facebook and other social networking websites by lawyers. The post shed light on the trouble an attorney can face when the substance of his or her webpage falls short of professional standards. As Professor Mazzie explained, postings that “criticize” judges, “reveal” client details, or “belie” statements made before a court can land an attorney in hot water.

Those facts should not surprise present and former Marquette students: we were presented with the professional dangers of social networking during new student orientation.

It likely was only a matter of time, but it seems that state ethics committees have turned their attention to the judiciary. The Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee released an opinion last month that, among other things, finds it inappropriate for a judge to “friend” lawyers on social networking sites when those lawyers may appear before that judge.

The Wages of Speech

Post author:Richard M. Esenberg
Post published:December 10, 2009
Post category:First Amendment Judges & Judicial Process Wisconsin Supreme Court

Apparently, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is not the only one sharply divided on an array of issues and fighting over questions of recusal. In Michigan, the Supreme Court voted 4-3 to require that individual justices who have denied a motion to recuse themselves explain the reason in writing and to permit the Court to overrule the refusal to step aside. A Detroit Free Press columnist says that the Michigan court has been characterized by “back-biting, name-calling and playground-level cruelty” and adoption of the rule did draw sharply worded dissents. Sound familar?

Locally, there appears to be a concerted effort (spurred, in part, by an internal memo circulated within the State Public Defender’s office) to seek the recusal of Justice Michael Gableman in a number of criminal cases because he has allegedly expressed a general bias against criminal defendants. Justice Gableman has refused to step aside (the rationale for the motions would apply in every criminal case), and it is unclear whether the Court can compel him to do so.

I think the controversy raises some interesting questions about the interaction between campaign speech and recusal. I am writing a paper on the topic and thought I’d test drive a few of the arguments here as applied to our local controversy.

Learning (At Last) to Value Water

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:December 9, 2009
Post category:Environmental Law Speakers at Marquette

wel In 1774, Ben Franklin said, “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of the well.”

“He was wrong,” author Robert Glennon told an audience of about 100 Tuesday at the Alumni Memorial Union at Marquette University. Even as wells and water supplies move ominously closer to dry in parts of the United States, the public and many policy makers are not responding in ways that could avert major impacts, warned Glennon, whose books include Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It, published last spring.

“We don’t value water in the United States,” Glennon told the session, part of the “On the Issues” series hosted by Mike Gousha, Marquette Law School Distinguished Fellow in Law and Public Policy.

Wisconsin is not standing at the precipice of a water crisis to the same degree as metropolitan Atlanta and much of the western United States, but it would still be wise to undertake public education efforts here and to make more effective water use decisions, Glennon said.