Facebook Posts in Opioids Case Show Social Media Risk for Judges

A Tennessee judge whose Facebook posts led to his removal from the bench in a local-government lawsuit against opioids makers ran afoul of one of the oldest ethics rules in the book, experts on judicial ethics say.

Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Lee Young created the impression that he had assumed the role of a “voice for change in the larger societal controversy over opioids” rather than limiting himself to being an impartial judge in a concrete dispute between parties, the Tennessee Court of Appeals said in disqualifying Young from the case.

He also gave the case’s drug-company defendants an easy ...