SoCiaL media oN appeaL
Appellate Practice Section Chairs: Heather Fesnak- Akerman LLP & Tom Seider- Brannock & Humphries
Social media is now a key tool for government and related organizations to communicate with the public they serve, but it presents special challenges for courts. Courts must ensure public records compliance, First Amendment protections, and importantly, impartiality( both in appearance and in fact).
The Florida State Courts System is widely recognized for its public engagement, which can be traced back to the tenure of Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles T. Wells. In the aftermath of Bush v. Gore, a series of anthrax scares at government buildings, and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Justice Wells established a commission to examine how Florida courts communicate with the public and deal with crisis. 1 The commission recommended creating a statewide group of court communication professionals. 2 With funding from the Florida Bar Foundation, the Florida Court Public Information Officers( FCPIO) organization was created. 3 Earlier this year, the FCPIO recognized Justice Wells with an award for his leadership in developing Florida courts’ public media strategies.
Jo Haynes, Marshal at the Second District Court of Appeal, attributes current court media operations to Justice Wells and the
court public information professionals throughout the state.“ For those of us who also serve in many other roles, the assistance of the Florida Supreme Court’ s public information office that Chief Justice Wells created has been invaluable. Their initial work made it easy for us to follow.”
Ms. Haynes explains that the Second DCA’ s social media presence began in limited fashion after realizing that Facebook had generated an incorrect“ location” for the Second DCA. The court initially started its own page with the correct location to correct the misinformation. Only recently has the court begun actively posting through its“ verified” Facebook page.
Facebook is reserved for“ softer” court news. Recent posts include Judge Atkinson’ s first oral argument panel and the court’ s“ traveling” oral arguments held in Ft. Myers and Dade City. Practitioners often tag themselves on Facebook at the court when they appear for oral argument.
The Second DCA largely uses Twitter for more time-sensitive messages. In 2017, its Twitter feed was instrumental in notifying the public about outages and court
© Can Stock Photo / HypnoCreative
“ in this age of e-everything, fast delivery of( time-sensitive) news is critical for managing work and deadlines.”— Second district Clerk mary Beth kuenzel
closures during hurricanes. Second DCA Clerk Mary Beth Kuenzel explains,“ Twitter allows us to instantly communicate with our practitioners about problems with court technology. In this age of e-everything, fast delivery of such news is critical for managing work and deadlines.” The court also tweets about the issuance of written opinions.
One challenge is moderating the public’ s contributions to the court’ s social media pages. Individuals may not create a new post on the court’ s page, but anyone can comment on a post. The Second DCA’ s Facebook page includes an“ Impressum” that sets forth the rules of use and conduct, as well as the consequences when those rules are broken. 4
But these rules are necessarily in flux. Recently, the Southern District of New York ruled that a public official— specifically, the President of the United States— does not have absolute discretion to“ block” a person on Twitter, and can violate the First Amendment by doing so. This ruling, and those that will undoubtedly follow, will affect how government organizations like courts moderate their social media pages. 5
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