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Justice Resigns Over Facebook Post With Noose and ‘Make America Great Again’

“For a judge to use the image of the noose in making a political point undermines the integrity of the judiciary and public confidence in the courts,” a state panel wrote.

An upstate New York town justice has stepped down after facing disciplinary charges for a Facebook post that featured an image of a noose and the message “IF WE WANT TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN WE WILL HAVE TO MAKE EVIL PEOPLE FEAR PUNISHMENT AGAIN,” the Times-Union reports. The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct said Tuesday that Kyle Canning had resigned from office effective June 27, and agreed never to seek office in the future. Canning posted the image in February 2018, just a few weeks after taking on his judicial bench, which he was supposed to hold until 2021. He removed the image in August 2018 after receiving a letter from the commission questioning the propriety of the image, according to Times-Union.

“The noose is an incendiary image with repugnant racial connotations,” Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian said in a statement Tuesday, adding it is “the very antithesis of law and justice. For a judge to use the image of the noose in making a political point undermines the integrity of the judiciary and public confidence in the courts.”