Opinion 10-01
September 16, 2010

TOPIC: Judge serving as a speaker or guest of honor at a non-law-related charitable fund-raising event.

Digest: A judge may serve as the guest speaker or the guest of honor at a college fund-raising event and may permit his or her name, title, and biographical information to be included in the program, invitation, and other material promoting the event.

References: Illinois Supreme Court Rule 65B(2) (as amended May 24, 2006); Illinois Supreme Court Rule 65B(2) (as adopted Dec. 12, 1986); Illinois Judicial Ethics Committee (IJEC) Opinions 96-3 and 99-5 (distinguished).

FACTS

A judge’s college alma mater invites the judge to be the guest speaker at a fund-raising dinner. The college, a non-profit educational institution, is not engaged in matters that ordinarily come before the judge and is not regularly engaged in adversary proceedings in any court.

QUESTIONS

1. May the judge serve as the guest speaker at a non-law-related fund-raising event sponsored by a non-profit educational institution?
2. May the judge’s name, title, photograph, and biographical information be included in the event program, invitation, and promotional materials?

OPINION

Issue 1

As amended in 2006, Illinois Supreme Court Rule 65 provides that a judge may serve as a speaker or guest of honor at a fund-raising event sponsored by an educational, religious, charitable, fraternal, or civic organization so long as the sponsoring entity is not conducted for the
economic or political advantage of its members. Ill. Sup. Ct. R. 65B(2) (as amended May 24, 2006). Before the amendment, Rule 65 prohibited a judge from engaging in such activities. Ill. Sup. Ct. R. 65B(2) (as adopted Dec. 2, 1986); see IJEC Op. 99-5 (applying pre-amendment version of Rule 65B(2) to preclude a judge from speaking at high school’s fund-raiser); IJEC Op. 96-3 (finding that pre-amendment version of Rule 65(B)(2) prohibited a judge from serving as speaker or guest of honor at university’s fund-raiser). Under the current version of Rule 65B(2), the judge may serve as the guest speaker at a fund-raising event held by his or her alma mater.

Issue 2

While Rule 65 permits a judge to speak or be honored at a non-law-related charitable event, the Rule also provides:
A judge should not solicit or permit his or her name to be used in any manner to solicit funds or other assistance for any organization. A judge should not allow his or her name to appear on the letterhead of any such organization where the stationery is used to solicit funds . . . .”
Including the judge’s name and title in promotional materials for the college’s fund-raiser could arguably be considered inconsistent with the provision of Rule 65B(2) prohibiting a judge from “permitting his or her name to be used in any manner to solicit funds” (emphasis added). The Committee, however, believes that it is unrealistic to interpret the Rule to authorize a judge to be a featured speaker or award recipient but to prohibit anyone from learning that fact before the event. In the natural course of charitable functions it is understood that the identity of the awardees and speakers will be publicized in advance. Indeed, in common usage, the term “guest of honor” is employed to describe the person in whose honor an event is held. An interpretation of Rule 65 which would preclude identifying the honoree on invitations or promotional material would be inconsistent with the very concept of a “guest of honor.”
Construing the various provisions of Rule 65B together, the Committee is of the opinion that the Rule does not prohibit the use of the judge’s name, title or accomplishments in invitations, advertisements, and other material traditionally employed in promoting a fund-raising event featuring a speaker or honoree.
Of course, the invitation and promotional materials may not infer that the judge is personally promoting the event, detract from the dignity of the judicial office, or call into question the judge’s impartiality. See Ill. Sup. Ct. R. 65B.