[Editors note: This is the second installment of a two-part series. Read the first column here.]
The American Bar Association’s 1908 Canons of Professional Ethics—apparently the first national code of ethics for lawyers—stated, “Judges, not being wholly free to defend themselves, are peculiarly entitled to receive the support of the Bar against unjust criticism and clamor.” This concept was carried forward to the ABA’s 1983 Model Rules of Professional Conduct not as a disciplinary rule but as a Comment to disciplinary Rule 8.2(a) which, as noted above, prohibit lawyers from knowingly or recklessly making false statements about judges.
