Judicial Conduct Reporter

The Judicial Conduct Reporter, published quarterly, summarizes recent decisions and advisory opinions, reports developments in judicial discipline, and includes articles on judicial ethics and discipline procedure topics.  The winter issue (the first one in the year) reviews the previous year in judicial ethics and discipline:  reporting on discipline statistics, summarizing all cases in which judges were removed, and reviewing the top stories.

Most recent issue

Fall 2024

• The prestige of judicial office on social media
  Like all provisions in the code of judicial conduct, the prohibition on judges misusing the prestige of office applies to a judge’s social media activities.  This article summarizes the public and private sanctions issued to judges for social media actions that violated the provision and the advice judicial ethics committees have provided for judges about using social media without misusing the prestige of office.
• Gifts, loans, and favorable terms
  Judicial discipline cases hold that a violation of the limits in the code of judicial conduct on judges accepting “gifts, loans, bequests, benefits, or other things of value” can be established without proof that a judge or their benefactor expected or received any favorable treatment as a result of their transaction and the judge’s position.
• Effects of removal
  In some states, when a judge is removed from office in judicial discipline proceedings, the judge loses not only their current judicial position, but also their ability to practice law or serve in judicial office in the future.
• Recent Cases
  • Troubling circumstances:  The Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct publicly reprimanded a judge for accepting a guilty plea in a case in which the defendant had been charged with driving without a license after striking the judge’s truck and for ordering the defendant to pay him restitution.  Randolph, Public reprimand (Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct October 14, 2024).
  • Outside the role:  The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications publicly admonished a former judge for providing the money a defendant needed to pay a default judgment. Public Admonition of Kepner (Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications May 17, 2024).
  • Pattern of manipulative conduct:  Adopting the recommendation of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the Washington Supreme Court removed a former judge from office and barred him from serving in any judicial capacity for (1) engaging in a pattern of domestic violence against his then-spouse over many years, involving physical assaults and emotional abuse, and (2) harassing a woman after she ended their romantic relationship. In re Swanberg, Order (Washington Supreme Court November 7, 2024).

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1999-2017 Judicial Conduct Reporters