LAWYERTHE HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

TAmpA, FLORIdA | SUmmER 2018 | VOL. 28, NO. 6

SoCiaL media oN appeaLAppellate Practice Section

Chairs: Heather Fesnak - Akerman LLP & Tom Seider - Brannock & Humphries

Social media is now a keytool for government andrelated organizations tocommunicate with the

public they serve, but it presentsspecial challenges for courts. Courts must ensure public recordscompliance, First Amendmentprotections, and importantly,impartiality (both in appearanceand in fact).The Florida State Courts System

is widely recognized for its publicengagement, which can be tracedback to the tenure of FloridaSupreme Court Chief JusticeCharles T. Wells. In the aftermathof Bush v. Gore, a series of anthraxscares at government buildings, andthe September 11, 2001 terroristattacks, Justice Wells established a commission to examine howFlorida courts communicate withthe public and deal with crisis.1

The commission recommendedcreating a statewide group of courtcommunication professionals.2

With funding from the Florida BarFoundation, the Florida Court PublicInformation Officers (FCPIO)organization was created.3 Earlierthis year, the FCPIO recognizedJustice Wells with an award for hisleadership in developing Floridacourts’ public media strategies.Jo Haynes, Marshal at the

Second District Court of Appeal,attributes current court mediaoperations to Justice Wells and the

court publicinformationprofessionalsthroughout thestate. “For thoseof us who alsoserve in manyother roles, the assistanceof the FloridaSupreme Court’s publicinformationoffice that Chief JusticeWells createdhas beeninvaluable.Their initialwork made it easy for us to follow.”Ms. Haynes

explains thatthe SecondDCA’s socialmedia presence began in limitedfashion after realizing thatFacebook had generated anincorrect “location” for the SecondDCA. The court initially started itsown page with the correct locationto correct the misinformation.Only recently has the court begunactively posting through its“verified” Facebook page.Facebook is reserved for “softer”

court news. Recent posts includeJudge Atkinson’s first oral argumentpanel and the court’s “traveling”oral arguments held in Ft. Myersand Dade City. Practitioners oftentag themselves on Facebook at the court when they appear for oral argument.The Second DCA largely uses

Twitter for more time-sensitivemessages. In 2017, its Twitter feedwas instrumental in notifying thepublic about outages and court

closures duringhurricanes.Second DCAClerk MaryBeth Kuenzelexplains,“Twitter allowsus to instantlycommunicatewith ourpractitionersabout problemswith courttechnology. In this age of e-everything,fast delivery of such news is critical formanaging workand deadlines.”The court alsotweets aboutthe issuance of writtenopinions.

One challenge is moderating thepublic’s contributions to the court’ssocial media pages. Individuals maynot create a new post on the court’spage, but anyone can comment on a post. The Second DCA’s Facebookpage includes an “Impressum” thatsets forth the rules of use andconduct, as well as the consequenceswhen those rules are broken.4

But these rules are necessarily influx. Recently, the Southern Districtof New York ruled that a publicofficial — specifically, the Presidentof the United States — does nothave absolute discretion to “block” a person on Twitter, and can violatethe First Amendment by doing so.This ruling, and those that willundoubtedly follow, will affect howgovernment organizations like courtsmoderate their social media pages.5

2 2 S U M M E R 2 0 1 8 | H C B A L A W Y E R

“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

Continued on page 23

© Can Stock Photo / HypnoCreative

2 3S U M M E R 2 0 1 8 | H C B A L A W Y E R

Continued from page 22

WELCOME NEW HCBA MEMBERS

april / may 2018

Charlotte Ford AbingtonBrittany ArmstrongJillian M. AskrenBrian P. BattagliaJennifer BeattyJacob BoehnerRainey C. BoothAlice Boullosa

Peter Carl Bradshaw IIIChristopher S. Cervellra

Pamela CichonVincent A. CitroBethany ConnellyChristie CostonNathan R. CoxAshleigh CreedBrian Cummings

Wiline Justilien DavisElana M. DenmarkGerard P. DuignanColette Duke

Ryan M. EdmistonJennifer N. EdwardsKasey A. Feltner

Sean FlynnKhalila Frett

Kris D. GallowayDeborah A. GetzoffJames W. Goodwin III

Portia GrayElisabeth J. HagoodDaniel HernandezSarah A. Hoerber

Damien M. HoffmanHarold Houck

Jessica Lee HoyerSarah Jonas

Yusuf A. KhoudmiChristopher LaFrance

Benjamin Michael LagosAndre J. Lama

Jason Steven LambertNicholas Langenkamp

Angela LeinerJ. Scott McMahonMegan Montagno

Sasha MooreThomas K. MorrisonWilliam P. Murray IIIChizomJ. Okebugwu

Joseph PiconeCourtnee C. ReidKurt Jairo RosalesJamie A. Rozzi

Todd Aaron SauerGabriel Dean Schurman

Kirsten E. SkokosCamilo SotoEd Spinks

Brien V. SquiresAlan StewartJennifer Strouf

Dennis C. Townsend IICarla WaltersIris E. Weller

Nicole E. Zaworska

Another challenge is broadening the court’s audience on social media. The court is unwilling to “friend” or “follow” other users, an avoidance necessary to maintain its appearance of unqualified impartiality (the court only follows the four other districts on Twitter). So, the court greatly appreciates itscurrent Twitter and Facebook followers, relyingupon them to spread its news via likes,retweets, and shares.If you would like to follow the Second DCA

to get the most recent news, updates, andinformation, or to occasionally help “spread thenews,” its social media handles are:Facebook: @2dca.flcourtsTwitter: @2dca_flcourtsYou can also continue to get information

from the court’s soon-to-be-updated website at www.2dca.org. And if you’re feeling old-fashioned, the Second DCA assures that phone calls remain as welcome as ever.

1 See Robert Craig Waters, Technological

Transparency: Appellate Court and Media Relations

after Bush v. Gore, The Journal Of AppellatePractice & Process, Vol 9, No. 2, at 384 (Fall 2007),available at http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/documents/2008_Bush_Gore_Article.pdf.

2 About Us, Florida Court Public InformationOfficers, http://www.fcpio.org/aboutus.shtml (last visited May 26, 2018).

3 Id.4 Florida Second District Court of Appeal,

Impressum, Facebook (May 26, 2018), https://www.facebook.com/pg/2dca.flcourts/about.

5 Order, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University v. Donald J. Trump, Case 1:17-cv-05205-NRB (S.D.N.Y. May

23, 2018) (available at https://knightcolumbia.org/sites/default/files/content/Cases/Twitter/2018.05.23%20Order%20on%20motions%20for%20summary%20judgment.pdf).

Author: Jared M. Krukar –

DPW Legal