Ensuring Judicial Independence
Ethics Education Programs for Judicial Candidates
A number of states, including Florida, Ohio, and Washington, have established mandatory education programs for judicial candidates on the Canons of Judicial Conduct relating to judicial campaigns. The Supreme Courts of Florida and Ohio established programs in order to familiarize candidates and their campaign chairpersons and treasurers with all applicable ethics rules and campaign finance reporting regulations. In Washington, the Judicial Ethics Advisory Council and Washington State Bar Association sponsor regular forums on judicial campaign issues. Bar associations can play an important role in educating judicial candidates, especially those attorneys running for judicial office who may be subject to bar discipline in cases of campaign misconduct.
The United States Supreme Court on December 3, 2001 accepted review of Minnesota Republican Party v. Kelly, an Eighth Circuit decision dealing with Minnesota’s ability to restrict judicial candidate statements through Canon 7 of its Code of Judicial Conduct. The Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether prohibiting a judicial candidate from "announc[ing] his or her views on disputed legal or political issues" is an unconstitutional impingement on freedom of speech as guaranteed by the First and 14th Amendments. (See 247 F.3d 854 for the Eighth Circuit decision. See 70 U.S.L.W. 3372 for information on the Supreme Court’s grant of review.)
Additional Resources:
An Aid to Understanding Canon 7: Guidelines to Assist Judicial Candidates in Campaign and Political Activities. Prepared by the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee. (Tallahassee, Florida: Office of the State Courts Administrator, July 2000). Found at: www.flcourts.org/sct/sctdocs/ethics/canon7.pdf.
Florida College of Advanced Judicial Studies, 2001 Course Catalog. Found at: http://www.flcourts.org/osca/judges/ajs/.
For information on the Ohio judicial candidate seminars, please contact the Ohio Judicial College at 614-752-8677.
For information on judicial candidate forums in Washington State, please contact the state bar at 206-443-WSBA.
This resource kit contains materials from a variety of sources. Consequently, unless specifically stated, materials do not necessarily represent official policy of the ABA.
Updated May 2002.