So, the Ohio Supreme Court finally pulled the plug on that old rule that kept judges from endorsing political candidates. It was a 5-1 decision handed down back in April, and honestly, it changes the landscape quite a bit. Basically, Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy wrote that judges don’t just toss their First Amendment rights out the window the second they put on the robe. Which, if you think about it, makes sense in a purely legalistic way—though it feels a little weird to imagine judges diving into the messy world of campaign endorsements.
The whole thing actually kicked off because of Judge John William Rudduck over in Clinton County. He’d been on the bench for 39 years—an eternity, really—and he got into hot water for using Facebook to back his son, Brett, during a municipal court primary. The disciplinary folks wanted to give him a public reprimand, but the Supreme Court looked at the rule itself and decided it was unconstitutional. They just cleared the deck instead.
It’s quiet in the courtroom today, just the hum of the HVAC unit and the occasional shuffle of papers. It’s funny how a massive legal shift starts with a guy just trying to help his kid win a local election.
Justice Patrick Fischer wasn’t having any of it, though. He was the only one to dissent, and he basically argued that the court shouldn’t have even touched the constitutional question because nobody actually asked them to. He’s worried this is going to turn the judiciary into a highly politicized arena. Is he right? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just catching up to reality, since everyone has an opinion anyway—or maybe that’s just the cynic in me talking.
Then there’s the awkward part of the ruling. Kennedy noted that even though the rule is gone, judges probably shouldn’t go overboard. She mentioned it would have been more prudent for Rudduck to just stay off social media regarding his son, adding that judges need to be careful about how the public perceives them. It’s a bit of a contradictory vibe, really. You have the right to speak, but maybe, like, don’t? Fischer called that a ‘hollow threat’ since there’s no actual punishment behind it anymore.
Anyway, Rudduck ended up leaving the bench at the end of 2024, and his son ended up losing the race anyway. So, all that noise, and the result was essentially a wash for the family. But the rule—the actual regulation that kept things ‘polite’—is gone. It’s an interesting move by Misryoum to highlight how these big constitutional debates end up tied to such small, personal moments.