Judges and magisterial district judges can be disciplined for illegal conduct that affects the integrity of the office, regardless of whether the conduct occurred within the judicial decision-making process, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
The court’s unanimous decision in In re Carney overruled the court’s holding in its 2000 opinion in In re Cicchetti, which found that alleged sexual misconduct of a court of common pleas judge did not violate Code of Judicial Conduct Canon 2A because the statute was limited to conduct implicating the judicial decision-making process.
