Federal magistrate joins Twitter, tweets about sports and fatherhood
U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal has joined Twitter, mostly because he wants more sports information.
“It was readily apparent I was missing out on fun and interesting stuff by not being on Twitter,” Grewal told the San Jose Mercury News. Grewal is a magistrate judge in San Jose, but he formerly lived in Akron, Ohio, and is a Cleveland Browns fan.
Only a few federal judges are on Twitter, according to the Mercury News. A state court judge, Justice Don Willett of the Texas Supreme Court, may be the judge with the highest Twitter profile; he has more than 12,000 followers.
Most of Grewal’s tweets are sports related, but in one recent post he offered some advice to lawyers and his children. “Memo to children named Grewal and counsel briefing discovery fights to judges named Grewal,” he wrote. “ ‘He started it’ is not a persuasive lead argument.”
In another tweet, he joked about “deflategate” with a judicial twist. “To avoid concerns about tampering,” he wrote, “the court will assume responsibility for the pressure of all exhibits.”
There are some ethics concerns for judges who tweet. Willett has said he avoids comments on legal issues that might come before him as well as partisan politics. The Mercury News notes guidelines by the California Judges Association, which said judges on social networks need to avoid contacts or statements that run afoul of ethical rules.
The U.S. Marshals Service also sees security concerns because social media can be used to track judges.
For his part, Grewal says he probably won’t follow lawyers, but offers this reason in the Mercury News interview: Lawyers are just so “damn dull.”
Related articles:
ABAJournal.com: “Texas justice is probably America’s most avid judicial Tweeter; is it unseemly?”
ABAJournal.com: “Texas justice illustrates his Twitter prowess with character-limit interview”
See also:
ABA Journal: “Legal ethicists are playing catch-up to create social media guidelines for lawyers, judges”
