Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. on Friday removed Judge Phillip Shepherd from presiding over the “teacher sickout” case because Shepherd had “liked” a Facebook post by a Democratic state representative that included an endorsement of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andy Beshear.
Gov. Matt Bevin’s attorneys had asked that Shepherd remove himself from the case, but Shepherd declined, saying that he had also liked several Facebook posts that promoted Republican causes including the reelection of Bevin.
Bevin appealed to Minton, who has the final say on the matter, and Minton took Shepherd off the case.
“This case should serve as a cautionary tale to all Kentucky judges who use social media. As the Judicial Ethics Commission wisely admonished in its 2010 opinion, these services are ‘fraught with peril’ for judges and should be used with extreme caution,” Minton wrote in a nine-page order. “While judges are not ethically prohibited from using social media, their use is subject to the Code of Judicial Conduct in the same manner as other extrajudicial activities.”
Minton transferred the case to Judge Thomas Wingate, the other circuit judge in Franklin County.
Since early in his administration, Bevin has repeatedly criticized Shepherd as a Democratic “partisan hack.”
The ruling removes Shepherd from presiding over the lawsuit brought by Beshear against Bevin Labor Secretary David Dickerson challenging Dickerson’s subpoenas to 10 school districts seeking the names of teachers who participated in sickouts that closed schools during the legislative session this year.
Ten school districts shut down for one or more days early this year when teachers flocked to Frankfort to protest bills dealing with public school policies and teacher pensions. Jefferson County Public Schools, the state’s largest district, closed its doors to students six times between late February and mid-March.
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Written by Tom Loftus. Cross-posted from the
Courier-Journal via the Kentucky Press News Service.