ABSTRACT
The Model Code of Judicial Conduct summarizes the legal profession's ethical standards for judges. In an effort to protect the integrity, impartiality, and independence of the judiciary, the ABA provides detailed guidance to its judges in an effort to help them navigate ethical difficulties. This chapter reviews those regulations, which focuses on regulating the speech of candidates in elections, the ways in which they affiliate with political organizations, and how they solicit money for their campaigns. It provides an overview of state adoption of key canons of ethics related to judicial campaigns. The chapter describes how states enforce these rules through both formal and informal means. It develops a model that explains variation in the levels of these restrictions across the states, demonstrating that states are driven mainly by factors related to professional norms rather than politics in choosing how to regulate judicial campaigns.
