HALT Report Blasts States for Secretive Judicial Ethics Oversight
A report by the nonprofit group Help Abolish Legal Tyranny calls the system of judicial oversight in Washington, D.C., among the most secretive in the country.
The District got a D grade on the group’s Judicial Accountability 2008 Report Card, the Washington Post reports. Maine and Mississippi got Fs, while the top grade went to Washington state, which got a B.
Second and third-place spots went to Connecticut and Pennsylvania in the ranking (PDF). The federal circuits got a D+.
HALT’s online summary of its report says it has issued “abysmal grades” to all 50 states and the federal circuits.
The grades were based on transparency, the severity of sanctions, the availability of online information, the percentage of nonlawyers involved in the process, the amount of financial disclosure, restrictions on complainants’ speech, and limits on outside compensation and gifts for judges.
Henry Schulke, special counsel to the D.C. Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure, told the newspaper that the report contained several inaccuracies. Apart from that, he said the commission is abiding by a federal statute that sets confidentiality and financial disclosure provisions.
