Ethics Panel Recommends Censure for Rep. Spillane for ‘Demeaning’ Comments; InDepthNH.org, July 17, 2026

Nancy West , InDepthNH.org; Ethics Panel Recommends Censure for Rep. Spillane for ‘Demeaning’ Comments

"The Committee charged Spillane with violations of the Ethics Guidelines, Section 1, Principles of Public Service, Paragraph III, Principle of Accountability, which provides that legislators “shall ensure that government is conducted openly, equitably and honorably in a manner that permits the citizenry to make informed judgments, have confidence in the integrity of the legislature, and hold government officials accountable” and Paragraph IV, Principle of Conduct, which provides that legislators “shall treat each other, legislative employees, and the public with dignity and respect.”

It will be up to the House to vote on the committee’s recommendation. The next time the House is expected to be in session will be Veto Day in September or October.

The report said Spillane admitted to making the postings identifying him as a state Representative at a hearing on the matter, but said they weren’t made in the performance of his official duties so his conduct didn’t fall within the jurisdiction of the Committee. Spillane also argued that his comments in the social media posts are protected speech under the federal and New Hampshire constitutions.

“While the right of freedom of speech is fundamental, it is not absolute. Certain categories of speech such as defamation and harassment can be restricted. In this case Rep. Horrigan testified that the offensive statements made in the posts were not true and. Rep. Harvey testified that she had legitimate concerns about her safety,” the report said.

In 2020, the civil rights unit of the Attorney General’s Office investigated a social media post by Spillane that stated “Public Service Announcement: If you see a (Black Lives Matter) sign on a lawn it’s the same as  having the porch light on for Halloween. You’re free to loot and burn that house.” Spillane said at the time he meant that post as “tongue-in-cheek” political commentary and the investigation was suspended with no action taken."

Türkiye issues ethics framework to regulate AI use in schools; Daily Sabah, January 11, 2026

Daily Sabah; Türkiye issues ethics framework to regulate AI use in schools

"The Ministry of National Education has issued a comprehensive set of ethical guidelines to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in schools, introducing mandatory online ethical declarations and a centralized reporting system aimed at ensuring transparency, accountability and student safety.

The Ethical Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence Applications in Education set out the rules for how AI technologies may be developed, implemented, monitored and evaluated across public education institutions. The guidelines were prepared under the ministry’s Artificial Intelligence Policy Document and Action Plan for 2025-2029, which came into effect on June 17, 2025."

Alaska judges will soon be bound by tighter ethics rules under a rewrite of court standards; Alaska Beacon, January 8, 2026

 JAMES BROOKS, Alaska Beacon ; Alaska judges will soon be bound by tighter ethics rules under a rewrite of court standards

"The Alaska Court System is preparing to finalize new ethics guidelines that will determine whether state judges must opt out from hearing cases due to personal conflicts.

An extensive new ethics code, modeled on a national standard drafted by the American Bar Association, is open for public comment through Jan. 23. 

The changes, which stretch for dozens of dense, jargon-filled pages, prescribe things like what a judge can ethically do during an election, how to respond if someone’s life might be endangered by secrecy and even what happens if an attorney is drunk in the courtroom...

Alaska’s existing code of ethics dates to 1998 and was based on a model released in 1990 by the American Bar Association.

The association released a new model code in 2007, but Alaska didn’t adopt it. In 2018, as the court system dealt with a rising number of Alaskans representing themselves in court, judges were struggling with what they could and couldn’t do to help, Winfree said."

A Columbia Surgeon’s Study Was Pulled. He Kept Publishing Flawed Data.; The New York Times, February 16, 2024

 Benjamin Mueller, The New York Times; A Columbia Surgeon’s Study Was Pulled. He Kept Publishing Flawed Data.

"Problems with the study were severe enough that its publisher, after finding that the paper violated ethics guidelines, formally withdrew it within a few months of its publication in 2021. The study was then wiped from the internet, leaving behind a barren web page that said nothing about the reasons for its removal.

As it turned out, the flawed study was part of a pattern. Since 2008, two of its authors — Dr. Sam S. Yoon, chief of a cancer surgery division at Columbia University’s medical center, and a more junior cancer biologist — have collaborated with a rotating cast of researchers on a combined 26 articles that a British scientific sleuth has publicly flagged for containing suspect data. A medical journal retracted one of them this month after inquiries from The New York Times."

Exclusive: Southeast Asia to set 'guardrails' on AI with new governance code; Reuters, June 16, 2023

Fanny Potkin and Panu Wongcha-um , Reuters; Exclusive: Southeast Asia to set 'guardrails' on AI with new governance code

"Southeast Asian countries are drawing up governance and ethics guidelines for artificial intelligence (AI) that will impose "guardrails" on the booming technology, five officials with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters...

The other ASEAN countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Those governments were not immediately reachable for comment."

Ginni and Clarence Thomas draw questions about Supreme Court ethics; ABC News, February 8, 2022

Devin Dwyer andGabriella Abdul-Hakim, ABC News; Ginni and Clarence Thomas draw questions about Supreme Court ethics

"There are no explicit ethics guidelines that govern the activities of a justice's spouse, experts say, but there are rules about justices avoiding conflicts of interest. Federal law requires federal judges to recuse from cases whenever their "impartiality might reasonably be questioned."

Roth notes, however, that there is no independent enforcement mechanism in place; it's entirely up to the individual justice...

Members of Congress and outside experts say new enforceable ethics rules for the court are needed now more than ever. Even Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged in his 2021 year-end report that "public trust is essential, not incidental" to the court's function. ​

But Roberts opposes outside efforts to impose a new ethics code."

Judges vote unanimously to adopt new conduct and ethics guidelines; The Irish Times, February 4, 2022

Mary Carolan, The Irish Times; Judges vote unanimously to adopt new conduct and ethics guidelines

"Judges have voted to adopt new conduct and ethics guidelines which will be the framework for the first judicial misconduct complaints procedure here. 

At a remote meeting on Friday of the 167 member Judicial Council, the guidelines were unanimously supported by the participants. The guidelines were circulated to the judiciary last month. 

In a foreword to the judges, Chief Justice Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell recommended their adoption. He said public confidence in the justice system “depends on the integrity and authority of the judiciary”. 

As well as promoting the “highest standards” of judicial behaviour, the guidelines will also provide a framework for the conduct review function of the council, he said. 

Prepared by the council’s Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC), the guidelines are based on international principles known as the Bangalore Principles, aimed at ensuring judicial independence, impartiality, integrity, propriety and the appearance of propriety, competence and diligence and equal treatment of all who come before the courts.

They are intended to guide judges as to their conduct and to form the framework for a detailed judicial misconduct complaints procedure which, under the Judicial Council Act 2019, must be operable by June 28th next."

Whose Lives Should Be Saved? Researchers Ask the Public; New York Times, 8/21/16

Sheri Fink, New York Times; Whose Lives Should Be Saved? Researchers Ask the Public:

"Charles Blattberg, a professor of political philosophy at the University of Montreal, said he worried that the effort could result in overly precise guidelines.

“The kind of judgment that’s required to arrive at a good decision in these situations needs to be extremely sensitive to the context,” he said. “It’s not about just abandoning one lone doctor to their own devices to make it up on the spot, but we can’t go the other extreme in thinking we have the solution to the puzzle already; just follow these instructions. That works for technical problems. These are moral, political problems.”

Ruth Faden, the founder of Johns Hopkins’s Berman Institute of Bioethics, which participated in the project, said she saw value in the exercise far beyond a pandemic.

“It’s a novel and important attempt,” she said, “to turn extremely complicated core ethical considerations into something people can make sense of and struggle with in ordinary language.”"