Right to Life, Judges File New Suit Challenging Judicial Ethics Code
Two candidates for judge and the Indiana Right to Life Committee have filed a federal lawsuit to block enforcement of state rules that bar the judges from answering a survey that asks about their views on abortion, assisted suicide and other hot-button issues.
The candidates, Marion Superior Court Judge David Certo and Torrey Bauer, a candidate for judge in Kosciusko County Superior Court, joined Indiana Right to Life as plaintiffs in the suit filed in South Bend by James Bopp, the Associated Press reports.
Bopp, general counsel of the James Madison Center, told the media that judicial candidates are shying away from the survey because of a Commission on Judicial Qualifications advisory opinion, which warns judicial candidates against making “broad statements on disputed social and legal issues” run the risk of violating the Indiana Code of Judicial Conduct.
A similar claim brought in 2004 was rejected by the 7th Circuit last fall because the plaintiffs lacked standing.
“In a right-to-listen case, Right to Life would have standing if there are otherwise willing speakers who are constrained by the Judicial Code,” the court said at the time.
This time, Bopp hopes to overcome the standing issue with two current candidates for judge behind the suit. AP reports that the plaintiffs are asking for a temporary restraining order so that judges can answer the Right to Life survey before the May 6 Indiana primary.
“Judicial candidates should be able to respond to questions about their beliefs so that voters will have something more to vote on other than their names, law school rank, and date of birth,” Bopp is quoted saying.
More on Bopp’s challenges to speech restrictions in judicial ethics codes in the ABA Journal’s November 2006 cover story, “The Big Bopper.”
