Ruth Marcus, The Washington Post; A former judge explains how to fix the Supreme Court’s ethics problem
"Jeremy Fogel, the executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, was a California state judge before being nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1998 to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. As a judge, Fogel served for seven years on the judicial committee that reviews judges’ financial disclosure forms, and, from 2011 until 2018, as director of the Federal Judicial Center, where he helped oversee judicial education about ethics and disclosure rules. He spoke last week with columnist Ruth Marcus."...
"Let’s get to the Fogel solution. What is to be done?
I think it’s best if this comes from the court. You avoid a lot of separation-of-powers issues. I think it would be meaningful if the court could, on its own, say, we’re going to adopt the code of conduct, we’re going to do our best to follow that code of conduct. And then just as important as having the code is having some way to get impartial referees in terms of what you do. I think there needs to be some place they can go to get an impartial opinion. And it can’t be somebody who works for them. This is why I like the idea of retired judges. I could put a list of a dozen people together who would be on that list. They all have really deep experience in this area. Then [the justices] can say, “Okay, here’s our code of conduct, which we’re going to endeavor to follow. And in case of a complaint or in real doubts of our own about what to do, we’re going to refer to this group and get their opinion.” It’s not binding, it’s still up to you to do the right thing. But you have somebody to ask, and you’re not just dependent on your own counsel and your own view of what’s okay. It’s not a perfect solution, but I think it could move the ball."
