Judges may volunteer at government animal shelters, MD ethics committee says

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Maryland judges may volunteer at government-run animal shelters, a state ethics panel decided last week.

In a published opinion Thursday, the Maryland Judicial Ethics Committee granted the request of a judge who wanted to work with animals and do some office work at a shelter in their jurisdiction. The committee advised them to avoid any potential conflicts of interest and to recuse themself from cases in which a conflict could be perceived.

The judge who made the request was concerned that the potential contact with animal control officers and defendants doing community service could pose ethical problems.

“The Requester proposes to work with animals in a setting where the volunteer duties would be exactly the same whether the shelter is operated by the local government or by a private, nonprofit entity,” the opinion states.

“The governmental nature of this shelter may be the reason the Requester might be more likely to encounter animal control officers or individuals performing court-required community service, but those contacts are purely incidental to the volunteer work proposed by the Requester. The Requester would not be involved in the exercise of any governmental authority or any considerations of government policy.”

The committee had never been asked specifically about volunteering at a government-run shelter. It considered a rule — which presented “grammatical ambiguity” — about the ways a judge can ethically volunteer for a government entity and the kinds of activities they may do that are not “law-related.”

“A more restrictive interpretation,” the opinion states, would conclude that judges can only volunteer or otherwise engage with government entities when their activities are “law-related” and that any volunteering that isn’t “law-related” must be done with a nonprofit, religious or civic organization.

But the committee noted that in 2014, a judge was allowed to coach a basketball team at a public high school and to earn a stipend. The panel wrote that the rule “was not intended to create a rigid distinction that forbids all participation by a judge in activities of a governmental entity that are not law-related.”

“The Committee interprets (the rule) to permit a judge to participate in a government-sponsored, non-law related activity as long as the participation does not involve the exercise of any governmental authority or any considerations of government policy and will not interfere with the judge’s independence or judicial duties,” the opinion states.

The Judicial Ethics Committee exists to answer judges’ questions via opinions and letters of advice. It comprises 15 members, mostly current and former judges, who are all appointed by the chief justice of the Maryland Supreme Court. The opinions are not signed by individual members.

This was the committee’s first opinion this year. Last year, it issued five opinions and three in 2024.