COMMITTEE ON CODES OF CONDUCT
ADVISORY OPINION NO. 43

A Judge Serving as a Statutory Member of a Citizens' Supervisory Commission of the Personnel Board of the County of Residence.

An opinion has been requested as to the propriety of a United States district judge serving as an ex officio member of a citizens' supervisory commission of the personnel board of the county of the judge's residence.

The commission, which supervises the state civil service system, is created by an act of the state legislature. The act designates United States district judges as members of the commission.

The commission is not concerned with the improvement of the law, the legal system, or the administration of justice as those terms are used in Canon 5G of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges. In discharging its statutory supervisory duties, the commission, of necessity, will deal with issues of fact or policy.

Canon 5G expressly provides that a judge should not accept appointment to a governmental commission concerned with issues of fact or policy on matters other than the improvement of the law, the legal system, or the administration of justice. The Reporter's Notes to the portion of the ABA's 1972 Code of Judicial Conduct corresponding to this canon set forth the reasoning on which it is based, stating "[t]he Committee adopted the view that the time and prestige of the judiciary should not be expended on the resolution of non-judicial public issues." See Thode, Reporter's Notes to Code of Judicial Conduct 91 (ABA 1973).

We therefore conclude that it would be improper under Canon 5G for a United States district judge to serve as a member of this governmental supervisory commission. See also Advisory Opinion No. 93.

January 10, 1975
Revised January 16, 1998