COMMITTEE ON CODES OF CONDUCT
ADVISORY OPINION NO. 32
Limited Solicitation of Funds for the Boy Scouts of America.
The Committee has received an inquiry as to the propriety of a federal
judge, who is chairperson of the Finance Committee for an Area Council
of the Boy Scouts of America, soliciting board members of the council and
a few trust funds for financial support for the area council.
Canon 5B(2) of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges states:
A judge should not solicit funds for any educational, religious,
charitable, fraternal, or civic organization, or use or permit the use
of the prestige of the judicial office for that purpose . . . .
We have heretofore in Advisory Opinion Nos. 2 and 12 said in substance
that a judge can serve without compensation on governing boards of organizations
which are similar, it would seem, to the Boy Scouts, provided he or she
does not engage in the solicitation of funds for the organization or permit
the influence of his or her name or office to be used in such solicitation.
Canon 5B(2) does not make any exception of persons who can be solicited.
The solicitation by a federal judge of funds for a charitable organization,
even though the solicitation is to a limited class of persons, is forbidden
by the Code.
March 4, 1974
Revised January 16, 1998