CBA Record November-December 2022

Illinois Supreme Court Ushers in Substantial Change with Enactment of New Code of Judicial Conduct By Judge Jasmine V. Hernandez & Trisha M. Rich

I n July 2022, the Illinois Supreme Court formally adopted the new Code of Judicial Conduct, the comprehen sive ethics code governing the behavior of state court judges and candidates for state judicial offices. Illinois’s soon-to be former Judicial Code was found in Supreme Court Rules 61 through 68 and will be repealed when the new Code takes effect on January 1, 2023. The new Code is the result of over a decade of debate and drafting by the Illinois Judicial Ethics Committee, a joint committee compris ing 18 members from the bar and the judiciary from three constituent organi zations: The Chicago Bar Association, the Illinois Judges Association, and the Illi nois State Bar Association. The new Code is based on the ABA’s 2010 Model Code of Judicial Conduct and substantially adopts its language, except where Illinois precedent or policy warranted changes. In revising its Code, Illinois now joins 37 other United States jurisdictions that base their judicial codes on the ABA’s Model Code. The new Code has several important goals. First, it shares the same number ing and structural alignment as the ABA’s Model Code, which will facilitate access

Preamble & Scope The Preamble & Scope contain two nota ble developments. First, Paragraph [4] contains a warning related to potential misconduct in misusing social media. It provides in part that the Code can be vio lated when “a judge uses the internet, including social networking sites, to post com ments or other materials such as links to websites, articles, or comments authored by others, photographs, cartoons, jokes, or any other words or images that convey information or opinion. Violations may occur even if a judge’s distribution of a communica tion is restricted to family and friends and is not accessible to the public. Judges must carefully monitor their social media accounts to ensure that no communication can be reasonably interpreted as suggesting a bias or prej udice; an ex parte communication; the misuse of judicial power or prestige; a violation of restrictions on chari table, financial, or political activities; a comment on a pending or impend ing case; a basis for disqualification; or an absence of judicial independence, impartiality, integrity, or competence.”

to decisional law, ethics opinions, and implementation studies for comparable provisions. Second, the new Code incor porates several provisions that address technological developments since the last revision in 1993. Those developments include the widespread use of social media, changes in recognized family relationships, and economic forces that warranted changes to monetary thresh olds for certain financial disclosures that judges are required to make. Third, the IJEC added clarity, particularly in ethical requirements in Code sections that judges sometimes had difficulty interpreting. (As the state’s only judicial ethics com mittee, IJEC fields ethics inquiries from state court judges and publishes opinions related to those issues; more information is available at www.ija.org/ijec). In most cases, the new Code does not change the substance of the current and soon-to-be former Code, but there are some notable changes – particularly with regard to social media – that judges and lawyers should be familiar with. This arti cle summarizes those changes.

18 November/December 2022