The Current Structure of Judicial Ethics

             In this blog series we are looking at Supreme Court ethics-the current state of judicial ethics in the United States, the basis for the current wave of concern about the ethicality of justices on the Supreme Court, and some of the ideas about how to assuage worries about the lack of a formal ethics structure that applies to the Court.   (See first installment,  Ethics and the Supreme Court: Judicial Integrity.)   In this second part of the series, we take a quick look at the ethical rules that apply to just about all of the judges in this country.

            In the United States today all judges except Supreme Court justices are governed by a code of ethics. The Code of Conduct for United States Judges applies to United States circuit judges, district judges, Court of International Trade judges, Court of Federal Claims judges, bankruptcy judges, and magistrate judges. Certain provisions of this Code apply to special masters and commissioners as indicated in the "Compliance" section.  The Tax Court, Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces have adopted this Code.[1]

           The federal rules are promulgated and regularly reviewed and updated by the Judicial Conference, which is chaired by the Supreme Court Chief Justice and "comprised of the chief judges of the 13 courts of appeals, a district judge from each of the 12 geographic circuits, and the chief judge of the Court of International Trade."[2] At the state level, each state has its own code or canons of judicial ethics, which resemble closely the federal code.[3]

The fact that the Supreme Court is our only court without a formal, binding ethics code seems like a gaping hole. It also seems rather hypocritical that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is an active participant in the creation and upkeep of the rules by chairing the committee that controls them, yet he and his associate justices need not abide by the rules that he considers worth imposing upon other judges. It is also notable that court systems not under the direct control of the federal court system have voluntarily adopted the Code; the Supreme Court should consider these voluntary adopters its models.

[1] Guide to Judiciary Policy, Code of Conduct for United States Judges, 2.

[2] United States Courts News Release, Judiciary Updates Code of Conduct; Seeks New Judgeships, March 17, 2009, http://www.uscourts.gov/News/NewsView/09-03-17/Judiciary_Updates_Code_of_Conduct_Seeks_New_Judgeships.aspx.

[3] A list of state ethics standards (most with links) including judicial codes is available at http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/resources/links_of_interest.html.

 Building a Better Legal Profession (BBLP) is an organization based at Stanford Law School.   BBLP is a national grassroots movement that seeks market-based workplace reforms in large private law firms. For more information, visit BBLP's Web site at www.betterlegalprofession.org.