What are the limits on judicial participation in community initiatives?
Community initiatives involve judges and court staff in roles that extend well beyond the adjudication of cases. Such roles present situations in which the behavior prescribed in the canons of judicial ethics could be breached. Fund raising to support an initiative is one example. In response, state judiciaries and national organizations have taken steps to ensure that judges can participate in initiatives in a manner fully consistent with the canons. Local courts also have developed mechanisms that keep a judge’s adjudicatory role separate from his or her interactions with the community.Some states have revised their canons of judicial conduct to promote court and community contact. California broke new ground in 1999 by amending its Standards of Judicial Administration to make such conduct an expectation: “Judicial participation in community outreach activities should be considered an official judicial function to promote understanding of and confidence in the administration of justi
Related Questions
- Are the mandate and strategic objectives of Canada’s participation in the debt relief initiatives still relevant?
- What happens if an eligible defendant does terminate his or her participation in the judicial diversion program?
- Can an eligible defendant terminate his participation in the judicial diversion program?
