Judges to disclose finances
Print
Email
Save
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court adopted a new rule Wednesday that requires judges at every level to publicly disclose their personal finances in a manner similar to what state lawmakers recently required of most elected and many appointed officials.
The new rule takes effect Jan. 1.
Judges initially were part of the disclosure bill that was the cornerstone of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s special legislative session on ethics last month. But the judges eventually were dropped from the bill that required many elected and appointed officials on state and local levels to report their financial holdings and debts.
The judges promised to write and adopt their own regulations.
In an order signed Wednesday for the Supreme Court by Chief Justice Pascal Calogero Jr., all elected judges and justices of the peace are required to annually file a financial statement. Violations of the new rule carry civil penalties to be assessed by the Supreme Court.
The order also says all financial statements are matters of public record.
The new rule can be found at the Supreme Court’s Web site at www.lasc.org.
Also effective Jan. 1, the high court revised the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct relative to the restrictions on the receipt and reporting of gifts by judges. The revisions also are available at the court’s Web site.
The code says a judge may not accept “compensation, gifts, loans, bequests, benefits, favors or other things of value for quasi-judicial and extra-judicial activities except under restricted circumstances.’’
The code says a judge may receive compensation and expenses for the quasi-judicial and extra-judicial activities permitted by the code if the source of such payments “does not give the appearance of influencing the judge in his or her judicial duties or otherwise give the appearance of impropriety’’ — subject to some restrictions spelled out in the code.
The code also says a judge shall not accept, directly or indirectly, any gifts, loans, bequests, benefits, favors or other things of value “which might reasonably appear as designed to affect the judgment of the judge or influence the judge’s official conduct.’’
