The Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics responds to written inquiries from New York state’s approximately 3,600 judges and justices, as well as hundreds of judicial hearing officers, support magistrates, court attorney-referees, and judicial candidates (both judges and non-judges seeking election to judicial office). The committee interprets the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct (22 NYCRR Part 100) and, to the extent applicable, the Code of Judicial Conduct. The committee consists of 27 current and retired judges, and is co-chaired by the Honorable Margaret Walsh, a justice of the supreme court in Albany County, and the Honorable Lillian Wan, an associate justice of the appellate division, second department.
Digest: (1) A judge who is concerned about violations of property maintenance regulations in the judge’s neighborhood may publicly express the judge’s personal views as a private citizen whose personal interests are affected by the lack of zoning enforcement, including at a public meeting of the city council or in a letter to the editor. (2) On these facts, the judge may also draw on the judge’s prior experiences as a city prosecutor and a city court judge to propound suggestions to the mayor and city council about how the local court could address these quality-of-life issues, but should not refer to the judge’s present judicial status in doing so.
