A Utah judge who’s been on the bench for more than 20 years has been suspended for six months without pay over Facebook post slamming President Trump’s “inability to govern and political incompetence.”
Utah Supreme Court Justice John A. Pearce concluded in an opinion posted Wednesday that Judge Michael Kwan’s politically-charged posts on both his Facebook and LinkedIn accounts in 2016 and 2017 were in violation of the judicial code of conduct and diminished the “reputation of our entire judiciary.”
“Welcome to the beginning of the fascist takeover,” a post from February 2017 read. “We need to be diligent in questioning Congressional Republicans if they are going to be the American Reichstag and refuse to stand up for the Constitution, refuse to uphold their oath of office and enable the tyrants to consolidate their power.”
On Inauguration Day, the Taylorsville judge posted: “Welcome to governing. Will you dig your heels in and spend the next four years undermining our country’s reputation and standing world? … Will you continue to demonstrate your inability to govern and political incompetence?”
Pearce added that while Kwan’s accounts were set to private, his friends were still able to share what he posted.