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The Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline recently published an opinion stating that judges may have Facebook friends. Judges were cautioned to use "constant vigil" and to maintain dignity in every comment, photograph or other information shared. Judges are even allowed to be friends with an attorney appearing before them.

And yes, they can tweet too, again being cautious about the ethical rules.

The opinion goes into some depth and notes that 40% of judges use social media, roughly the same percentage as the rest of the country.

This is the first time I've seen the subject officially addressed in such detail. As we've already seen, judges (along with lawyers) have managed to "step in it" when using social media, but directionally, educating judges on the ethical and responsible use of social media is the way to go - this is one train that left the station (full steam) quite a while ago.

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