Lawyers who violate judicial canons while campaigning for a judgeship can expect in the future to be suspended from the Bar, the Florida Supreme Court has warned.

The court, in a divided May 26 opinion, imposed a public reprimand for numerous violations of Bar rules and judicial canons committed by an unsuccessful candidate who ran against an incumbent Marion County judge in 2018. The referee found the lawyer cast aspersions against the incumbent, indicated if elected he might not be impartial in cases that came before him, and failed to act in a way that would uphold the impartiality, integrity, and independence of the judiciary, among other violations. After the referee conducted the factual hearing, a consent judgment proposed the reprimand, and the referee went along.

The per curiam opinion accepted the referee’s recommendation for a public reprimand via publication of the opinion “as sufficient under the applicable rules.”