Judge Suspended For Photoshopped Campaign Ad

In a flier for his judicial campaign, Steve Callaghan photoshopped his opponent, incumbent Gary Johnson, partying with Barack Obama at the White House, “while Nicholas County loses hundreds of jobs.” In fact, Johnson had visited the White House for a federally required conference on fighting child trafficking, and did not see Obama while he was there. The flier, mailed out five days before the May 2016 election, was “in every sense, materially false,” the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia said in a ruling that fined Callaghan $15,000 and suspended him for two years. Callaghan won the election by 220 votes. The Supreme Court of Appeals had hired Callaghan as Supreme Court administrator, so all its judges recused themselves from the case. In their place, a retired Supreme Court judge and four circuit court judges heard the case. Callaghan has filed a federal lawsuit arguing that the disciplinary case violated his First Amendment right, as the flier was rhetorical hyperbole or parody, not intended to be taken literally.