Special interests should not be permitted to fund, and thus shape, continuing legal education for our nation's judges. If judges need education, the taxpayers should pay for it. Indeed, the taxpayers already do pay for judicial education. The Federal Judicial Center, created by Congress and funded by taxpayers, provides unbiased education running the gamut of legal issues. As the Center's chair testified recently, the biggest complaint the Center gets is that its seminars “work the judges too hard.”

     Stopping junkets for judges is thus simple: the judiciary should ban the junkets. The judiciary should prohibit judges from accepting gifts worth thousands of dollars from special interests to pay for judicial education. It is a step that has been called for before, but repeatedly rejected by judges. The time to act is now. If the judiciary does not act, Congress must.

     So write your local judges, Senators, Representatives today and demand that they ban the junkets. It's a small price to pay to maintain and restore the public's trust in the integrity of our judicial system.

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