Judge Wrote A Book

An opinion of the Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee

May a judge include on their website a picture of a book co-authored by the judge along with a link to where the book will be available for purchase.

ANSWER: Yes.  So long as the judge does not use the prestige of office to promote the book and neither the judge, the judicial assistant, nor a member of the judge’s family sells the book to any member of the Bar.

Facts

The inquiring judge informs us that they have co-authored a book “for self-represented parties who are trying to make their way through family court.”  This book will be self-published and available through Amazon.com, and perhaps other websites as well.  The judge also maintains a personal website, which includes information for self-represented parties and for college students. The inquiring judge asks if they can include a picture of this book along with a link to where it will be available for purchase on their personal website.

Discussion

Over the years, this Committee has addressed numerous queries from judges who have authored various types of books that they wish to sell to the public.  See generally Fla. JEAC Op. 98-01 (crime novel); Fla. JEAC Op. 2010-12 (children’s book); Fla. JEAC Op. 76-17 (appellate procedural manual); Fla. JEAC Op. 2019-18 (family court and mental health); Fla. JEAC Op. 82-05 (children’s book about the consequences of crime).  In Fla. JEAC Op. 2010-12, we summarized some of the ethical parameters for judges engaging in book promotion activities—such as including a photograph of the judge on the publisher’s website, participating in book signings, and including the fact that the author was a judge in a press release—wherein we advised:

Such activities are reasonable and commonplace for publishers and are incidental to the avocational activity of the author. These activities do not appear to lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of others; do not cast reasonable doubt on the judge’s capacity to act impartially; do not undermine the judge’s independence, integrity or impartiality; nor do they demean the judicial office.

Subject to the ethical restrictions that apply to all communications from judicial officers, judges are generally allowed to maintain personal websites and social media pages.  See, e.g., Law Offs. of Herssein & Herssein, P.A. v. United Servs. Auto. Ass’n, 271 So. 3d 889, 896-99 (Fla. 2018) (addressing the question of whether Facebook friendships between judges and attorneys is a basis for disqualification).  “We have also agreed that a judge may make a profit through the use of the internet.”  Fla. JEAC Op. 2019-18.  Judges may, therefore, offer their books for sale through the internet, so long as they are not improperly utilizing the prestige of their judicial office to promote the book, see Fla. Code Jud. Conduct, Canon 5D(1)(a), and “neither the judge, the judge’s assistant, nor any member of the judge’s family [] sell the book to members of the bar.”  Fla. JEAC Op. 2019-18. In sum, the authoring judge’s promotional activities must not: “(1) cast reasonable doubt on the judge’s capacity to act impartially as a judge; (2) undermine the judge’s independence, integrity, or impartiality; (3) demean the judicial office; (4) interfere with the proper performance of judicial duties; (5) lead to frequent disqualification of the judge; or (6) appear to a reasonable person to be coercive. Fla. Code Jud. Conduct, Canons 4A, 5A.”  Id.  As we said in Fla. JEAC Op. 2020-21:

The overriding caution the committee wishes to convey to the judge, whether it involves the pursuit of a book promotion or any other extra-judicial activity, is the precept expressed in Canon 3A. Specifically, “The judicial duties of a judge take precedence over all the judge’s other activities”.  The plain language of such a directive requires no further explanation from us.

Accordingly, and subject to the foregoing, we answer this inquiry in the affirmative.

(Mike Frisch)