Today an article appeared on Fox news about a NC judge that sent
emails to his friends and colleagues that contained jokes about ethnic
groups that may appear in his courtroom in the course of his duties as
a judge.  A case will be filed against him at the Judicial Standards
Division and he expects to be asked to step down by the Chief Justice.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,97254,00.html

This raises the question, if a professional covered by a code of
ethics breaks that code through email, is that sufficient to warrant a
complaint at his/her licensing/monitoring agency?  In this case, no
individual person was actually harmed, yet the passing of jokes was
viewed as worthy of a complaint.  If he had made such comments about
someone that appeared in his court, would that not be even more of a
breach of ethics (if there are degrees to such a thing)?

My own view is that he should not have been sending ethnic or any
other jokes on judicial time with judicial resources but that while
some sanction is warranted, dismissal would too extreme on the first
offense.  If, on the other hand, he had joked about a particular
individual whose case he heard and sent emails about that to others, I
would say that worthy of dismissal.  I would also say if someone had
complained previously of something similar and he had been warned,
that would be worthy of dismissal.

Anyone?  Anyone?

Terri

http://pub219.ezboard.com/btinnitusactivismandsupport