Judges give instructions to juries before their deliberations and, in the case of no-jury trials, judges must decide the facts of the case and make a decision. In addition, judges are also responsible for sentencing convicted criminal defendants. Most cases are heard and resolved by a jury. An independent and honorable judiciary is indispensable for justice in our society.
The judge must maintain and enforce high standards of conduct and must personally observe those standards, in order to preserve the integrity and independence of the judiciary. The provisions of this Code must be interpreted and applied to promote that objective. Testimony as a character witness confers the prestige of the judicial office on the process in which the judge testifies and can be perceived as official testimony. Appropriate measures may include communicating directly with the judge or lawyer, other direct measures if available, reporting the conduct to the appropriate authorities, or, when the judge believes that the conduct of a judge or lawyer is due to drugs, alcohol, or a medical condition, confidentially referring it to an assistance program.
A judge should avoid lending the prestige of a judicial office to promote the private interests of the judge or others. The participation of a judge in a closely controlled family business, while generally permitted, may be prohibited if it takes too long or involves a misuse of judicial prestige, or if the company is likely to reach the court in which the judge acts. Any person who is an official of the federal judicial system authorized to perform judicial functions is a judge for the purposes of this Code. A judge's membership in an organization that practices odious discrimination gives rise to the perception that the judge's impartiality is affected.
Whether disciplinary action is appropriate and the degree of discipline should be determined by a reasonable application of the text and should depend on factors such as the seriousness of the undue activity, the intention of the judge, whether there is a pattern of improper activity, and the effect of the improper activity on other individuals or on the judicial system. A judge should not be personally involved in the application for membership if the request can reasonably be perceived as coercive or if it is essentially a fund-raising mechanism. E) the judge has held governmental positions and, in that position, participated as a judge (in a previous judicial position), lawyer, advisor or material witness in connection with the process or has expressed an opinion on the merits of the particular case under dispute. As Chief Judge Sweeney later pointed out in his speech some 12 years earlier, he had begun to “read seriously,” perhaps as a result of his work in the Working Group on Violence and Extremism of then-Governor Harry Hughes, in an effort to “understand how, in a supposedly civilized society, a death machine could be set in motion that would eventually methodically and dispassionately destroy six million people, men and women, and a million children.”.
The people appointed by a judge include appointed attorneys, officials such as arbitrators, commissioners, special teachers, recipients, tutors, and staff, such as legal secretaries, clerks, and court assistants. This Canon generally prohibits a judge from mediating in a state court matter, except in unusual circumstances (for example, see the Rules for Judicial Conduct and Judicial Disability Procedures, Rule 4 (a) () (which states that “recognizable misconduct” includes not drawing the attention of the appropriate chief district judge or chief circuit judge to any reliable information that could constitute misconduct or judicial disability). The Code must be interpreted in a way that does not affect the essential independence of judges in making judicial decisions. .
