May a part-time judge who also prosecutes in another city host a police-only social event?
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This page answers the general question as of 1993. Ask about yours and see what the current rules of professional conduct in your state say for your facts, with citations.
Plain-English summary
The Fairhope municipal judge also served as prosecutor in Daphne and asked for clarification of an earlier opinion about police social events. The Commission said its judicial Canons did not govern the prosecutor role itself. The prosecutor could invite the Daphne police department to a social function while making every effort not to present as a judge.
The judge could not avoid the appearance concern by inviting Fairhope’s police department alone, even while acting as the Daphne prosecutor. If the judge invited the Fairhope department, the other Fairhope municipal departments also had to be invited under the Commission’s analysis.
Currency note
This opinion was issued in 1993, after the Alabama Supreme Court's 1975 adoption of the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics. Subsequent amendments or later opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context and verify the current Canons and linked opinion before relying on its conclusions.
Common questions
Q: Could the prosecutor host the Daphne police department?
A: Yes, while making every effort not to present as a municipal judge.
Q: Could the judge invite Fairhope police alone?
A: No. The opinion says other municipal departments would also have to be invited.
Q: What earlier opinion did this clarify?
A: Alabama JIC Opinion 93-498, which addressed an annual police cookout.
Background and rules framework
The opinion clarifies Alabama JIC Opinion 93-498’s appearance-of-impropriety analysis; it cites no numbered Canon.
Citations and references
Other opinions cited:
- Alabama JIC Opinion 93-498, on hosting an annual police-department cookout.
See also
Source
- Landing page: Alabama JIC advisory opinions
- Original PDF: Advisory Opinion 93-506
- Canon history: Alabama JIC, Canons of Judicial Ethics
Original opinion text
Reproduced from the official source for research purposes. The linked source is authoritative.
93-506
Judicial Inquiry Commission
800 SOUTH MCDONOUGH STREET
SUITE 201
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA 36104
October 29, 1993
This is in response to your request for a clarification of the advisory opinion issued by the Judicial Inquiry Commission to you on August 27, 1993. Your question is whether you, as a part-time municipal judge in the City of Fairhope, are prohibited from hosting any social event that is limited to the police department of the City of Daphne, where you serve as the municipal prosecutor. In Advisory Opinion 93-498, this Commission held that a part-time municipal judge should not host an “annual” cookout to which he extends an invitation to any municipal police department. It remains the opinion of this Commission that under the Canons of Judicial Ethics, you, as a municipal judge for the City of Fairhope, shouid not invite the Fairhope Police Department - as a department - to any social event unless the other departments of municipal government are also invited. However, the Canons of Judicial Conduct do not apply to the conduct of a municipal prosecutor. As a municipal prosecutor you may invite any police department to any social function you choose to host. In doing so you must make every effort not to hold yourself out as a municipal judge. It is the opinion of this Commission that you cannot avoid the appearance of impropriety by extending an invitation to the Fairhope Police Department even if that invitation is extended in your capacity as municipal prosecutor for the City of Daphne. As this Commission stated in Advisory Opinion 93-498: “The hosting of a cookout on an annual basis for a police department lends the appearance that you are attempting to ‘curry favor’ with a special interest group. Such conduct, no matter how innocently conceived, provides reasonable ground to assume that the judge would automatically give more credence to the testimony of a police officer than that of any other witness.” This advisory opinion has been considered by and is the opinion of the entire Commission.
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