Legal News

Mississippi Court Reprimands Judge Over Comments About ?White Folks?

By Nathan Koppel

How much room do judges have to exercise their Free Speech rights? In Mississippi, at least, they better watch their tongues.

Thursday, the state’s Supreme Court reprimanded Solomon Osborne, a recently-resigned state judge, for supposedly uttering this line: “White folks don’t praise you unless you’re a damn fool.” (HT to The Legal Profession Blog.)

While campaigning for re-election as a county court judge, according to the court’s opinion, Osborne, who is African-American, spoke in 2006 before the Greenwood Voters League, a predominantly African-American political organization. Portions of the speech appeared the next day in the local newspaper.

“Blacks not where we should be,” Osborne was quoted as saying. “White folks don’t praise you unless you’re a damn fool. Unless they think they can use you. If you have your own mind and know what you’re doing, they don’t want you around.’

The speech was not too well received. The Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance received 48 complaints and eventually decided to file a complaint against the judge. Osborne denied making the statements and also defended himself on free-speech grounds.

But the commission ultimately recommended that Osborne be removed from office and prohibited from ever again serving as a judge in the state.

On appeal, Mississippi’s high court staked out a middle ground of sorts. The judge’s alleged statements did not constitute protected political speech, the court held, because they were made as part of a critique of a local mayor–and not in support of the judge’s reelection bid. “Judge Osborne’s disparaging insults went well beyond the realm of protected campaign speech expressing views on disputed legal and political issues,” the majority wrote, adding that judges accept “the calling with full knowledge of certain limitations upon speech.”

The court, though, stopped short of saying Osborne could never again serve as a judge. Since Osborne resigned from the bench last year, it held that a public reprimand was punishment enough.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 06, 2009 (boomark / email).