Caroline Glennon-Goodman, a Cook County judge, shared a meme that depicts a smiling black boy and a black child’s leg with an electronic monitor on it, a fake ad for “My First Ankle Monitor.” The judge wrote “My husband’s idea of Christmas humor.” It was supposed to go to a friend, but she sent it to the wrong person, another judge ( #@!%^!& autofill!) Oopsie! That judge reported her and the post became public.

Glennon-Goodman has been reassigned by the Circuit Court’s Executive Committee, and ordered to undergo bias training and will face a state disciplinary investigation. The executive committee wrote that Glennon-Goodman’s alleged actions “may violate the Code of Judicial Conduct” and it said it was temporarily reassigning her and referring the matter to the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board “to promote public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”

Before the executive committee’s order, a black lawyers’ group condemned Glennon-Goodman’s circulation of the meme. Of course they did. There is no room for the Golden Rule in racial politics. The Cook County Bar Association said, “It is our understanding that the photo was meant to be shared with a different audience and that the judge involved has apologized profusely. Nevertheless, such media is inappropriate to share regardless of the audience. …Any judge should be unbiased enough to not further circulate such a racist trope … The imagery recalls our nation’s history of inappropriate media images of Black people (such as blackface) and such imagery continues to shape the opinions of Black people, particularly Black men.”

Ethics observations:

1. She’s toast. It doesn’t matter what her intent was, and we will probably never know. Maybe she’s planning on divorcing her husband because he’s a racist. Maybe she was saying to someone she had discussed his biases with, “This is what I have to put up with!” Maybe she was simply pointing out that the meme was outrageous. Maybe she’s secretly biased but is able to be a fair and honorable judge anyway. She became a judge last year after being a public defender for over 20 years, specializing on homicide cases. She’s in Chicago: you know a disproportionate number of her defendant clients were black. Maybe she’s cynical, and has every reason to be. It doesn’t matter. She’s toast.

2. And she has to be. That kind of joke cannot be forgotten or forgiven once made public. No black party appearing in a case before her is going to be able to avoid wondering about her possible prejudices and bias. Her judgment is also suspect because she sent out the meme over the internet at all. There are too many well-documented cases of such things becoming public and wrecking reputations. Judges cannot publicly display such atrocious judgement, and may I add, “Duh.“

3. Yes, it’s moral luck. Yes, life is unfair. Yes, I’m sure that many, many judges around the country, even black judges, have sent equally provocative memes and gags to close friends without adverse consequences. Again, it doesn’t matter. This is the epitome of the appearance of impropriety.

4. Apologies are mandatory in such situations, but they don’t help, in part because they are mandatory. She would issue the same “profuse” apology whether the incident was a misunderstanding or she was a secret member of the Klan.

5. Whoever it was who received the email by accident is an ethics villain unless he or she had good reason to believe that Glennon-Goodman was racist, biased, and an unethical judge. Otherwise, the ethical course would have been to call her on the phone, tell her she misdirected the email, and destroy it. This is basic Golden Rule stuff.

6. Once again, I hold that “anti-bias training” is worthless, and the unethical equivalent of re-education camps at worst or going through the motions for show at best. Bias is human and natural. If the class’s purpose it to teach how to avoid letting your biases make you stupid, that’s something else: call it “Bias Management” or something.

7. Ugh. “[S]uch media is inappropriate to share regardless of the audience. …Any judge should be unbiased enough to not further circulate such a racist trope.” This is insidious censorious garbage, hinting at the political orientation of the organization. Today “Left” equals speech controls.

8. The meme is not per se racist. A black social critic might have created it to dramatize how the African-American culture still points two many mebers to crime. Context matters, and there is no way to know the context of this incident, except that a judge was involved.

9. What does “The imagery recalls our nation’s history of inappropriate media images of Black people (such as blackface) and such imagery continues to shape the opinions of Black people, particularly Black men” mean? I see no relationship to blackface at all. By “the opinions of Black people, particularly Black men” does the bar mean that it shapes white people’s views of blacks, or shapes black people’s own opinions? My guess is that it is the former, but what lazy and ambiguous writing for a group of lawyer!

10. The web and email have been around long that we must expect any professional to know how to use both responsibly. Sure, it was a mistake, and could happen to anybody. Judges aren’t “anybody” however. The smart and ethical thing for this judge to do is resign, with a clear statement avoiding the Pazuzu Excuse.