Religious Group Questions Fla. Judicial Ethics Code
Alyson M. Palmer reports on the Fulton County Daily Report:
Today, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear a case that tests how far states may go in telling judicial candidates how to deal with public interest group questionnaires they receive during campaigns.
The Florida Code of Judicial Conduct rule at issue mandates that judges must recuse in any case where in the course of an election campaign they committed themselves on an issue or controversy that later comes before them on the bench . . .
The lawsuit is a challenge to some of Florida’s judicial ethics rules filed by the Florida Family Policy Council, an advocacy organization associated with James Dobson’s Focus on the Family that describes itself as “pro-life, pro-family, pro-marriage.” The challenge centers on a questionnaire the council disseminated to Florida judicial candidates in 2006 and its intersection with a recusal rule of the Florida judicial conduct code . . .