The Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics responds to written inquiries from New York state’s approximately 3,600 judges and justices, as well as hundreds of judicial hearing officers, support magistrates, court attorney-referees, and judicial candidates (both judges and non-judges seeking election to judicial office). The committee interprets the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct (22 NYCRR Part 100) and, to the extent applicable, the Code of Judicial Conduct. The committee consists of 27 current and retired judges, and is co-chaired by the Honorable Margaret Walsh, a justice of the supreme court in Albany County, and the Honorable Lillian Wan, an associate justice of the appellate division, second department.
Digest: Where a court-sponsored committee on racial equality in the courts has been directed to interact with the local community and develop projects that highlight local history, judges on the committee may publicly support an effort to rename a local geographic feature that currently bears a racially offensive name, but must not assume a leadership role in the effort or use judicial or court resources to file the name change application with federal authorities.
