MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Tennessee Board of Judicial Review has issued a public reprimand against a Shelby County judge for controversial comments made on his Facebook page.
Criminal Court Judge Jim Lammey drew scrutiny this year for sharing an article to Facebook that called Muslim immigrants “foreign mud,” criticized the integration of public schools and said Jewish people should get over the holocaust.
Other posts on his account took positions on illegal aliens, professional athletes kneeling for the national anthem and the Black Lives Matter movement, along with displaying a preference for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and against Hillary Clinton, according to a letter sent to Lammey by the board.
Lammey said in previous interviews that nothing he’d shared on Facebook “has anything to do with my ability to be fair and impartial,” but several groups including Latino Memphis and the Memphis Bar Association questioned that. The Shelby County Commission voted in support of Lammey’s censure.
The state board said its investigation found no proof that Lammey made statements that were anti-Semitic, racist or anti-immigrant, nor that Lammey had displayed any bias against anyone who had appeared before him as a judge.
But, they said, “it appears that some of your Facebook posts were partisan in nature, which is a clear violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct.”
The board said the posts could have created a perception of bias, which undermines public confidence in the judiciary.
In its letter, the board said Lammey had acknowledged his error in sharing the posts, and agreed to complete a judicial ethics program. He will refrain from making similar comments on social media and will keep his social media accounts private.
The board noted that Lammey has served as a judge since 2006 and as an assistant district attorney for 16 years before that, and had no prior negative history with the Board of Judicial Conduct or the Board of Professional Responsibility.