Ohio Magistrate’s Firing Over Campaign Materials Held Justified

A magistrate judge can be fired over campaign materials disparaging the way her division was run, an Ohio federal judge held in dismissing her free speech claims.

Jacqueline Gaines, an appointed magistrate judge for the Montgomery County trial court’s domestic relations court, ran for an open judicial position on the trial court against a fellow magistrate and distributed mailers that could be interpreted as criticizing her employer, Judge Edmund Sargus wrote in an order for the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

By suggesting “that her opponent worked less and had inconsequential job responsibilities compared to her ...