Agenda

Today: Judicial Ethics

    - Ethical Requirements of Judges
    - Enforcement
    - Impeachment
    

Next class: Major Court Cases

Code of Conduct for United States Judges

• Adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States
• Aspirational rules
• Not legally binding

Code of Conduct for United States Judges

• Integrity and Independence
• Impartiality and Diligence
• Avoiding Impropriety (and appearance of)
• Extrajudicial Activities
• Political Activity

Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court

• First adopted in November 2023
• Justices self-enforce the code
• Prior to 2023, Justices consulted various judicial codes at their own discretion

How bad can court corruption be?

Bribery in Houston Family Court (1970s and 1980s)

• Judges in Houston Family Court accused of taking bribes

• Awarding child custody to wealthy ex-husbands

• Even awarded custody to alleged sexual abusers

• Accusations include cronyism, incompetence, sexism, racism, bribery, and fraud.

• Courtwatch, a women’s grassroot movement, helped defeat these judges at the polls

• https://www.amazon.com/Women-CourtWatch-Reforming-Corrupt-Family/dp/0292709587

Conflicts of Interest

• Judges must recuse themselves if there is a conflict of interest

• This is a legal requirement (28 USC § 455)

• Recusal for these conflicts:

    - Financial conflicts
    - Personal biases
    - Prior involvement in a case as a lawyer

Bribery

• offering or receving anything of value to influence an official act
• prohibited by 18 U.S. Code § 201
• Also referenced in the US Constitution as grounds for impeachment

Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980

• Investigation process

• Chief Judge for the circuit reviews complaints

• Special committee of judges investigates

• Committee refers findings to the Circuit Judicial Council

    - No action
    - corrective measures
    - referral to the Judicial Conference

Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980

• Investigation process

• Chief Judge for the circuit reviews complaints

• Special committee of judges investigates

• Committee refers findings to the Circuit Judicial Council

• Judicial Conference

    - No action
    - corrective measures
    - referral for impeachment

Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980

• Investigation process
• Chief Judge for the circuit reviews complaints
• Special committee of judges investigates
• Committee refers findings to the Circuit Judicial Council
• Judicial Conference
• Impeachment

Justice Department

• Cases of bribery are also prosecuted as crimes by the Justice Department

Issues

• Short of actual bribery, the US Supreme Court Justice’s are nearly immune from consequences
• Many decisions are left to the judges unless there is a complaint
• Corruption not involving bribery can be hard to prove
• Prosecutors may be hesitant to prosecute judges

Authorship and License

Do not submit to Quizlet, Chegg, Coursehero, or other similar commercial websites.

• Author: Tom Hanna

• Website: tomhanna.me

Graphics Credit: Unless otherwise noted graphics are from Norton Publishers

• License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.