Judges may participate in local bar association panel discussions that address how judges confer with colleagues or consider amicus filings in cases, according to the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee.

The ethics panel acted May 21 in Opinion Number: 2024-07.

“[J]udges are free — and, indeed, encouraged — to discuss the legal process and how they perform their judicial duties to better foster public confidence,” the opinion says, noting Canon 4 permits judges to express themselves on “the law, the legal system, the administration of justice, and the role of the judiciary as an independent branch within our system of government,”