Philly Judge in Big Trouble for Facebook Posts
This isn't the Honorable Mark Cohen's first tryst with controversy.
Left: Philadelphia Judge Mark Cohen (photo courtesy Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas) | Right: A thumbs-down symbol inspired by Facebook
Thumbs down. That’s what the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Court of Judicial Discipline (CJD) has to say about the Facebook posts of Philadelphia Judge Mark Cohen.
On Monday, the panel of eight judges from the CJD ordered Cohen suspended without pay for the remainder of his current term. That term ends on December 31st. And after that? Due to his age and state limitations on age, he can’t run for a judgeship again.
So what horrible things was Judge Cohen, who served in Family Court, saying on Facebook? Was he spewing all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories? Was Judge Cohen calling people all sorts of horrible names? Going off unhinged? Hardly.
There are rules of conduct governing judges in Pennsylvania. Among those rules, judges aren’t supposed to make politically charged statements or blatantly display their political biases. But according to the CJD, that’s exactly what Judge Cohen did via his personal Facebook page, dozens of times.
It’s fair to say that the judge’s posts slanted pretty hard to the left. He made Facebook posts in support of unions and politicians like District Attorney Larry Krasner, Governor Josh Shapiro, and President Joe Biden. He was critical of the Donald Trump campaign. Cohen had no shortage of opinions, and he shared them on Facebook, well, liberally.
But it wasn’t just Cohen’s Facebook use in and of itself that has him out of a job. The CJD says it reprimanded Cohen repeatedly about his Facebook posts but that he just kept on making posts that violated the rules.
Pennsylvania’s Judicial Conduct Board first filed a complaint against Cohen in February 2023. In May of this year, the CJD issued an opinion against Cohen’s Facebook posts and put off the imposition of any sanctions until this month.
“A review of Judge Cohen’s postings shows he is partial to the political left on a variety of matters, that he shares his opinions of same with thousands of his Facebook friends and followers, and that he actively and openly supports leftward political figures and legislation that have nothing to do with the advancement of the law or the legal system,” the judges wrote in their May decision. “Judge Cohen does not display the public face of independence or impartiality expected of a judicial officer.”
But even after that, says the CJD, Judge Cohen continued to spout off. In Monday’s ruling, the panel wrote that no other case in the history of the CJD “involved such defiance post decision.”
Cohen has had a long career in Pennsylvania politics, including decades in the state House of Representatives. And this isn’t the first time he’s run into controversy. The Daily News once dubbed Cohen the “king of perks” for his reported of taxpayer money on things like airline tickets. And after Cohen was pushed out of state office in 2016 and then popped up as a judicial candidate, columnist Stu Bykofsky had some fun at his expense.
“We’ll be appealing to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court this week,” Cohen’s attorney, Sam Stretton, told Philly Mag on Tuesday afternoon. “The original decision was disappointing. And the sanctioning was uncalled for.”
