US Supreme Court Adopts Judicial Code of Conduct

In the September issue of Hearsay, a US Federal Judge – his Honour Judge Michael Ponsor – identified the shortcomings associated with the US Supreme Court not having adopted, like other US federal courts, a Code of Judicial Conduct.  His Honour expressed concern as to reports of judges of the Supreme Court receiving gifts including free travel: https://www.hearsay.org.au/a-federal-judge-asks-does-the-supreme-court-realize-how-bad-it-smells/

On 13 November 2023 the Supreme Court adopted such a Code. That is linked below.

For several decades there has existed in Australia a “Guide to Judicial Conduct”, published by the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration Incorporated. The third, and revised, edition thereof was published in December 2022. The link to that guide – which is comprehensive – is to be found here: https://aija.org.au/publications-introduction/guidelines/guide-to-judicial-conduct/. On page 9 thereof, in Chapter Two – ‘Guiding Principles’, the following appears (the sentence in bold was added to the third edition following the resolution of the Council of the Chief Justices of Australia and New Zealand of November 2020):

Judges must conform to the standard of conduct required by law and expected by the community.  They must treat others with civility and respect of their public life, social life and working relationship.  It goes without saying that Judges must not engage in discrimination or harassment (including sexual harassment) or bullying.  In relation to these matters, Judges must be particularly conscious of the effect of the imbalance of power as between themselves and others, especially their Chambers staff, Court staff and junior lawyers.

The newly adopted US Supreme Court Code of Conduct can be viewed here.