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 retired 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 full-time judge may not serve as an officer or director of a not-for-profit community group organized to oppose a municipality’s proposed changes to a public park by litigation and other means, and may not engage in community outreach or fund-raising on behalf of the group. However, the judge may make charitable donations to the group and may engage in certain public advocacy activities on the judge’s own behalf where the judge has a clear and direct personal interest at stake. (2) A non-judge candidate for judicial office may continue to engage in such activities, provided they are kept separate from the candidate’s judicial campaign.
