The 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 former associate justice George D. Marlow of the Appellate Division and Margaret Walsh, a Family Court judge and acting justice of the state Supreme Court.
Digest: (1) A judge ordinarily may preside in matters involving an attorney who is the chair of a political committee on which the judge’s court attorney serves. (2) The judge need not insulate the court attorney or disclose the relationship when the town committee chair appears as an attorney, where committee membership is the only connection between the two attorneys, the proceeding does not involve the committee or related political issues, and the judge is satisfied that the court attorney can be objective. 22 NYCRR 50.5; 50.5(e); 100.2; 100.2(A); 100.3(C)(2); 100.3(E)(1); 100.5(C)(1), (4); Opinions 13-78; 13-26; 12-71; 11-125; 07-126; 07-11; 01-35; 00-108; 99-95; 90-102.
