Take Down Election-Eve Legal Ethics Censure and Replace It with My Order, Fed'l Judge Tells Agency
A judicial candidate censured this week by a legal ethics agency in Nevada over her criticism of her opponent has won an emergency restraining order from chief federal judge of the local U.S. District Court.
It not only requires that the censure be taken down from a public website maintained by the Nevada Standing Committee on Judicial Ethics and Election Practices but that it be replaced with the judge’s order finding the censure unconstitutional, reports the Las Vegas Sun.
In his ruling yesterday, Chief U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt said the censure by the committee violated Joanna Kishner’s constitutional right to free speech by imposing an ethics rule that “impermissibly prohibits candidates from conveying true statements to the public simply because the statements could be misconstrued by some part of the general public.”
If the censure of Kishner were to remain on the Internet site, “the outcome of the election could very well rest on voters’ perception of Kishner as a result of the unconstitutional decision,” Hunt wrote.
Kishner is a Las Vegas lawyer and a candidate for a seat on the Clark County bench.
Additional coverage:
Las Vegas Review-Journal: “Federal Judge Slaps Down Ethics Panel Slap Down”
