Judicial Ethics Opinion 20-181
Must a judge take any action with respect to the submissions of a town justice in support of a town court clerk's pistol permit application?
March 22, 2021 at 05:00 AM
3 minute read
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 the Honorable Margaret Walsh, a justice of the supreme court, and the Honorable Lillian Wan, a court of claims judge and acting supreme court justice.
This responds to your inquiry (20-181) asking whether you must take any action with respect to the submissions of a town justice in support of a pistol permit application before you. You indicate that the town justice initially provided a character reference, evidently at the request of the applicant, in support of the application for a "full carry" use of a handgun based on the applicant's employment as a town court clerk. After you denied the application and granted a more limited license, the clerk asked you to reconsider and attached a detailed, two-page letter from the town justice, on judicial stationery, in support. You now ask whether you must take any disciplinary action regarding the town justice's involvement in his/her clerk's pistol applications.
The Committee has repeatedly advised that a judge may not serve voluntarily as a character reference for an individual applying for a pistol permit. We have further advised that a judge who receives a letter from another judge in support of a pending application in the receiving judge's court, under circumstances that indicate that the letter was not solicited by an appropriate agency, must report the letter writer to the Commission on Judicial Conduct.
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