ABA commission releases final proposals to revise Model Judicial Code

The ABA Joint Commission to Evaluate the Model Code of Judicial Conduct has released its final proposal to revise the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct, addressing such issues as the increasing pressure on judges and judicial candidates to state positions on political issues and limits on judges accepting gifts, including free attendance at seminars. 

The proposals are intended to provide guidance for judges regarding their professional and personal conduct and to assure the public that effective standards exist to regulate that conduct.  They will be presented to the ABA House of Delegates for consideration in February, and do not constitute association policy unless and until they are approved. 

“Underlying every proposed rule in this code is the precept that judges, individually and collectively, can preserve public trust and confidence in the legal system only if they adhere to what the commission calls ‘the three I’s’: independence, integrity and impartiality,” said Commission Chair Mark I. Harrison of Phoenix. “The revision provides guidance in a climate of social changes about how we select judges, how courts function to help communities solve problems like drug abuse and domestic violence, and our expectations of how judges must preserve the independence, impartiality and integrity of the bench.”  

Among the key substantive elements suggested for change include: acknowledgement of “problem solving” or “therapeutic” courts such as drug courts; cautioning that although judges may encourage settlements, they shall not coerce settlements; prohibiting judges from making pledges, promises or commitments with respect to cases; clarifying that judges may, without compromising their independence, integrity and impartiality, accept certain gifts without reporting them; and detailing permissible political activities for candidates for judicial office.

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