{"id":110156,"date":"2025-03-11T02:05:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T10:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/11\/judges-no-longer-need-to-stop-federal-law-clerks-from-applying-to-political-jobs-while-clerking\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T02:05:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T10:05:19","slug":"judges-no-longer-need-to-stop-federal-law-clerks-from-applying-to-political-jobs-while-clerking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/11\/judges-no-longer-need-to-stop-federal-law-clerks-from-applying-to-political-jobs-while-clerking\/","title":{"rendered":"Judges No Longer Need To Stop Federal Law Clerks From Applying To \u2018Political\u2019 Jobs While Clerking"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back in September, the U.S. Judicial Conference\u2019s Committee on Codes of Conduct published an advisory opinion concerning judicial employees\u2019 political activities. At the time, judges were encouraged to curtail law clerks from applying to post-clerkship political jobs<\/a> while working for the federal court system, as such job searches could \u201crisk[] linking the judge\u2019s chambers to political activity, which could compromise the independence of the judiciary.\u201d Six months later, now that Trump is back in the White House, that judicial ethics opinion is looking pretty relaxed.<\/p>\n

Late last week, the judicial panel modified its advisory opinion, and as noted by Reuters<\/a>, it\u2019s much more lenient:<\/p>\n

\n

[O]n Friday, the committee, which is tasked with providing judges and judicial employees guidance on ethical issues, took a less strict view of such employment, saying it only \u201cmay pose such a risk\u201d under \u201csome circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the appointing judge retains discretion to assess this risk and to impose restrictions or limitations, if any,\u201d the new ethics guidance advised.<\/p>\n

The committee said that assessments of those risks should now be made on a \u201ccase-by-case basis in full consideration of all the facts, circumstances, and potential risks involved, underscoring the importance that the judge, as the law clerk\u2019s appointing authority, should be completely informed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a pretty significant walking back of the committee\u2019s ethics rule during a time when judicial ethics may matter more than they ever have before. But then again, who\u2019s to say that a judge wouldn\u2019t be threatened with possible impeachment if word got out that they prevented a clerk from applying to a post-clerkship political job? Because of the unprecedented times we live in, anything is possible.<\/p>\n

US judiciary relaxes ethics standard on clerks seeking political jobs<\/a> [Reuters]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Federal Law Clerks Barred From Applying To \u2018Political\u2019 Jobs While Clerking<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Judges No Longer Need To Stop Federal Law Clerks From Applying To \u2018Political\u2019 Jobs While Clerking<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back in September, the U.S. Judicial Conference\u2019s Committee on Codes of Conduct published an advisory opinion concerning judicial employees\u2019 political activities. At the time, judges were encouraged to curtail law clerks from applying to post-clerkship political jobs<\/a> while working for the federal court system, as such job searches could \u201crisk[] linking the judge\u2019s chambers to political activity, which could compromise the independence of the judiciary.\u201d Six months later, now that Trump is back in the White House, that judicial ethics opinion is looking pretty relaxed.<\/p>\n

Late last week, the judicial panel modified its advisory opinion, and as noted by Reuters<\/a>, it\u2019s much more lenient:<\/p>\n

\n

[O]n Friday, the committee, which is tasked with providing judges and judicial employees guidance on ethical issues, took a less strict view of such employment, saying it only \u201cmay pose such a risk\u201d under \u201csome circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the appointing judge retains discretion to assess this risk and to impose restrictions or limitations, if any,\u201d the new ethics guidance advised.<\/p>\n

The committee said that assessments of those risks should now be made on a \u201ccase-by-case basis in full consideration of all the facts, circumstances, and potential risks involved, underscoring the importance that the judge, as the law clerk\u2019s appointing authority, should be completely informed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a pretty significant walking back of the committee\u2019s ethics rule during a time when judicial ethics may matter more than they ever have before. But then again, who\u2019s to say that a judge wouldn\u2019t be threatened with possible impeachment if word got out that they prevented a clerk from applying to a post-clerkship political job? Because of the unprecedented times we live in, anything is possible.<\/p>\n

US judiciary relaxes ethics standard on clerks seeking political jobs<\/a> [Reuters]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Federal Law Clerks Barred From Applying To \u2018Political\u2019 Jobs While Clerking<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Judges No Longer Need To Stop Federal Law Clerks From Applying To \u2018Political\u2019 Jobs While Clerking<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in September, the U.S. Judicial Conference\u2019s Committee on Codes of Conduct published an advisory opinion concerning judicial employees\u2019 political activities. At the time, judges were encouraged to curtail law clerks from applying to post-clerkship political jobs while working for the federal court system, as such job searches could \u201crisk[] linking the judge\u2019s chambers to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Staci-Zaretsky-ZzdriK.jpeg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}