Leahy Dubious About Ethics Code Change

[peterh]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4005142,00.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The American Bar Association is considering ethics code changes that the leading Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee says would erode judges' accountability. States rely on the ABA's ethics guidelines to establish rules that judges must follow or face sanctions. The ABA also draws up similar rules for lawyers.

One change under discussion by the nation's largest lawyers' group would rewrite the rule that says judges should ``avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities.'' Instead of a stand-alone rule, similar language would be incorporated in another part of the guidelines that says judges must obey the law.
That amounts to giving judges more freedom to do things that, while legal, may be unethical, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote in a letter to ABA President Dennis Archer.

Leahy suggested the ABA is politically tone deaf to consider changing the standard just as public attention to judicial conduct is keen. He said the recent uproar over Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's hunting trip with Vice President Dick Cheney reveals the need for strong ethics standards.




No doubt there’s an element within the ABA that could be quite sympathetic to a Scalia type and maybe looking for brownie points in general from the neocon wing….don’t think it’s Archer himself….

[MaineDem]

1. Kick (nt)