Florida State Judge Faces Removal After Calling Opponent ‘Bigot’

Heated campaign rhetoric and encouraging a lawyer to run against another judge are sufficient ethical violations to remove a Tampa trial court judge, Florida ethics officials said in a decision released Wednesday.

Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Judge Nancy Jacobs (D) “denigrated the incumbent as a ‘bigot,’ ‘not a good person,’ and someone who hates Jews,” the Florida Judicial Qualification Commission said in a 55-page brief filed with the Florida Supreme Court. Not monitoring partisan statements from her campaign and continuing partisan actions afterward should be enough for termination, the commission said.

The case strikes at the boundaries between judicial ethics and ...