Judge M. Margaret McKeown was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1998. A member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct since 2001, she was named chair in 2008. She also represented the federal Judiciary as a member of the ABA Commission that, in 2007, issued the revised ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct.

Judge M. Margaret McKeown (9th Cir.)

Would you tell us about the scope of the work of the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct?

Our primary role is to be an ethics service center and sounding board for judges and judicial employees. The Committee interprets the Codes of Conduct for judges, judicial employees, and federal defenders. The Committee also drafts and interprets the regulations on gifts and outside earned income and honoraria.

We are the go-to committee for developing ethics policy for the Judiciary, although we are not involved in developing disciplinary policies related to misconduct. Our goal is to make sure that the ethics guidelines for judges and employees effectively protect the integrity of the Judiciary, but do so in a reasonable fashion that does not impose unnecessary restrictions.

The key project this year has been to finalize revisions to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges. The revised Code was adopted by the Judicial Conference in March and became effective on July 1. We rolled it out on the J-Net in a complete package, with the new Code, a revised Compendium of Selected Opinions, and a revised set of approximately 100 revised advisory opinions that are consistent with the new Code.

What is the process for getting an opinion from the Committee?

We try to provide timely and thoughtful ethics advice to individual judges and employees. For example, if a judge asks a question and requests a formal response, the judge will receive a confidential letter opinion within three weeks at most. If a judge needs an expedited opinion, we can do that. We’ve even responded overnight in an urgent situation. During the past year, we issued over 100 letter opinions. All of the letter opinions are confidential, as is all of our advice.

Judges and employees can also call or e-mail us for an informal opinion. We usually can provide an informal response on the spot or with some minimal additional research. I personally field several hundred calls a year from judges, clerks, and employees; the other 14 Committee members also respond to many inquiries. In addition, our Committee counsel, Robert Deyling, and his colleagues in the AO’s General Counsel Office, handle many of the calls. We receive about 500-600 informal requests every year.

Brief summaries of our letter opinions are included in the Compendium.