In their May 14 Opinion, The Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee concluded on a very important issue concerning judicial candidates and the materials that they distribute.
Since it’s very common for candidates to have a campaign website that contains a link for supporters to make contributions, there have always been questions about if it should be permissible for a judicial candidate to display or distribute items that list the campaign website address.
As reported by The Florida Bar in their article “Navigating judicial campaigns — what’s permissible in promoting websites?“, The Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee concluded that judicial candidates can hand out materials that contain their website:
A judicial candidate may distribute business cards and campaign literature that include the candidate’s campaign website address, where the website has an online option to make contributions to the candidate’s campaign, according to a split Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee opinion.
Acting May 14 in Opinion Number: 2024-06, nine committee members said that would be permissible while three concluded it would not.
In the same inquiry, the committee held a judicial candidate may not use a cover photo on the candidate’s personal Facebook page that includes the candidate’s campaign website address, where the website has an online option to make contributions to the candidate’s campaign. The committee concluded that by a vote of 8 to 4.
For the full article and more information on Opinion Number: 2024-06, read more here:
