Judges may not serve on or consult with executive or legislative branch policymaking committees or commissions unless they focus on the law, legal system, administration of justice, or independence of judiciary, according to the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee.

The Supreme Court’s ethics committee issued Opinion 2022-10 August 30 responding to a judge who has been asked by the Office of School Safety, which is a part of the Department of Education, to serve on the recently created School Environmental Safety Incident Reporting Committee, created in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting. The Office of School Safety has reached out to the inquiring judge, as well as state attorneys and criminal law practitioners, to become a member of the committee to assist in harmonizing the definitions to be used in a proposed revision of an administrative rule with those used in criminal statutes.

The JEAC cited Canons 4C and 5C(1) in saying that a judge shall not appear at a public hearing or consult with an executive or legislative body, except on matters concerning the law, legal system, or administration of justice.