Florida Bar v. Conway [1]

The Florida Bar took disciplinary action against Florida attorney Sean Conway after he wrote a post [2] on JAABlog [3] criticizing Judge Cheryl Aleman's practice of setting unreasonably short time periods for criminal defendants to prepare for trial.  In the post, Conway referred to Judge Aleman as an "evil, unfair witch" and indicated that she was “seemingly mentally ill." The disciplinary charges focused on alleged violations of five attorney ethics rules, including a rule against impugning a judge’s qualifications or integrity.

Conway agreed to a public reprimand in June 2008, but this settlement was subject to approval by the Florida Supreme Court.  On review, the Florida Supreme Court ordered the parties to brief the issue of whether the First Amendment protects Conway's comments.  Conway submitted a brief [4] arguing that his comments were protected speech, and the ACLU supported his position with an amicus brief [5]. The matter is still pending.

Update:

9/12/09 - The New York Times reported [6] that the Florida Supreme Court ultimately upheld the disciplinary action against Mr. Conway.