Free Speech: Do not punish judges for exposing flaws
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Judges in West Virginia get a front-row seat to the mess that is our foster care system, and the damage it is doing to children. When they speak publicly about what they see -- when they pull back the curtain and express concerns about what is happening to our most vulnerable kids -- fragile public officials try to silence them.
Thank goodness, it's not working.
Most recently, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals dismissed ethics charges against Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Maryclaire Akers, after the state tried to claim her comments about the foster care system in a radio interview were problematic.
According to a report by West Virginia Watch, the Judicial Investigation Commission believed Akers' comments about a hearing that involved the attempted suicide of a 12-year-old foster child living in a hotel, along with information about foster children living at the Kanawha County 4-H camp, and her order for a court monitor to oversee and possibly improve the state's overreliance on hotels for housing foster children were ethics violations.
Their reason? They thought -- you cannot make this stuff up -- that her carefully considered comment could be interpreted as criticism of executive branch agencies responsible for child welfare services.
You know the old saying: If they squawk, you hit them where it hurts.
This is the same mindset that led to the commission admonishing Third Judiciary Circuit Judge Tim Sweeney for media interviews in which he raised concerns about the shortage of Child Protective Services workers.
Sweeney was not deterred, either.
"If I am not willing to speak out to protect our children, I cannot expect other judges to do the same when necessary and appropriate," he told The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register at the time.
The American Center for Law and Justice says this kind of behavior by the Judiciary Commission "runs the danger of unconstitutionally chilling the speech of all West Virginia judges and depriving the public of information on the legal system which is of great public interest," according to the WV Watch report.
If it keeps the public from learning more about the mess state government just does not seem to be willing or able to clean up, perhaps that's exactly what the commission is going for.
But for now, let us hope they have learned their lesson.