The Bevin administration filed a motion Tuesday to remove Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd from the teacher "sickout" lawsuit, arguing he disqualified himself by "liking" a Facebook post supportive of Andy Beshear's campaign for governor.

Shepherd is the judge presiding over Attorney General Beshear's lawsuit challenging Kentucky Labor Cabinet Secretary David Dickerson's subpoenas to 10 school districts. The cabinet was seeking the names of teachers who participated in sickouts that closed schools during the legislative session this year.

According to the motion filed by Bevin's general counsel, Stephen Pitt, Shepherd liked a photo posted on Facebook by state Rep. Chris Harris, D-Pikeville, on Friday, in which the legislator stated he was "honored to sign a pledge card to vote for the Beshear/Coleman ticket in November."

Beshear is the Democratic nominee for governor who is challenging Gov. Matt Bevin in the election this fall.

Because of the Facebook like, Pitt's motion states, Shepherd's court "has demonstrated an inability to set aside politics to preserve the integrity of the judiciary. For that reason, it must disqualify itself from further presiding over this action."

Shepherd declined to comment on the motion Tuesday.

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Beshear called it "yet another absurd attack by an out-of-control governor."

"Matt Bevin and his labor secretary have recently announced their 'findings' that over 1,000 Kentucky teachers broke the law. Now Bevin is trying to prevent the courts from giving those same teachers due process. Matt Bevin needs to stop attacking teachers, judges and his own lieutenant governor,” Beshear said in a statement.

Bevin has publicly criticized Shepherd on numerous occasions during his first term, referring to him as a "partisan hack."

This motion is also not the first time the Bevin administration has sought to discredit Shepherd over a Facebook post.

In September 2018, Bevin posted a video criticizing Shepherd for clicking that he was "interested" in a Facebook event in Frankfort that involved a protest against legislators who voted for a pension bill that was supported by the governor.

A motion by the Bevin administration to the Kentucky Supreme Court in the lawsuit challenging that pension bill also made a reference to that Facebook event in its footnotes.

Shepherd told the Courier Journal at the time that his response was not an endorsement of the event or an indication that he would attend, as he lived two blocks away from the event and only wanted information about how to avoid the crowd.

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Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4472 and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courierjournal.com/subscribe.