Anonymous Commenter Judge

Above the Law has a really interesting story on a judge who was posting anonymous comments to a local paper about lots of issues, including cases that were before her.

The judge registered her email with the paper’s website and then became a frequent commenter. The judge had lots of comments about the cases and – quite comically – the lawyers before her. The funny twist is that the judge claims her daughter wrote many of the comments. I really love the daughter for jumping under the bus (and dislike the fact that the judge let her daughter jump). But, please, these are clearly comments from an insider who sat through a lot of these trials.

The paper has been criticized for breaching the trust of its anonymous comments. I think the idea that anonymous comments are required to be protected is without a lot of foundation. These individuals offer comments and have been given no assurances of anonymity. Besides, if you really want to make a comment, have some guts and put your name to it.