The Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics responds to written inquiries from New York state's approximately 3,600 judges and justices, as well as hundreds of judicial hearing officers, support magistrates, court attorney-referees, and judicial candidates (both judges and non-judges seeking election to judicial office). The committee interprets the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct (22 NYCRR Part 100) and, to the extent applicable, the Code of Judicial Conduct. The committee consists of 27 current and retired judges, and is co-chaired by former associate justice George D. Marlow of the Appellate Division and the Honorable Margaret Walsh, a justice of the Supreme Court.

Digest: A judge (1) may be enrolled in a political party, but may not otherwise be a member of a political organization; (2) may serve on the advisory board of a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preservation of a historic theater, subject to certain limitations; (3) may not create or participate in a Go Fund Me campaign to raise money for a charitable cause, where the judge's involvement would not remain strictly behind-the-scenes in planning fund-raising but instead would be used to promote the campaign; (4) may join a not-for-profit organization's board to review scholarship applications from, and award scholarships to, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigrants; and (5) may use his/her judicial title in internal bar association communications as a bar association committee chair.

Rules: 22 NYCRR 100.2; 100.2(A); 100.2(C); 100.4(A)(1)-(3); 100.4(C)(3); 100.4(C)(3)(a)(i); 100.4(C)(3)(b)(i), (iv); 100.5(A)(1)(ii); 100.5(A)(1)(b); 100.5(A)(1)(g)-(i); Opinions 15-104; 14-159; 14-132; 09-170; 05-56.