Wednesday, March 18, 2009

New Federal Judicial Ethics Rules

New rules of ethics for federal judges go into effect on July 1, 2009.

The most interesting element may be the effort to define the much-lambasted phrase "appearance of impropriety".  The definition is:

An appearance of impropriety occurs when reasonable minds, with knowledge of all the relevant circumstances disclosed by a reasonable inquiry, would conclude that the judges honesty, integrity, impartiality, temperament, or fitness to serve as a judge is impaired.

If that is the standard for recusal, I think that Justice Scalia should not have participated in the 2004 case involving then V.P. Cheney's claim of confidentiality of official consultations on energy policy, when the Justice and his daughter went duck-hunting, as guests of theVice President, flying on Air Force Two.  Gives new meaning to the term duck blind. The Sierra Club unsuccessfully moved to compel recusal.  The Times editorialised on the issue here.

The new rules can be found here

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