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The 6th Circuit found no ethical violation with a federal judge’s membership in an all-white country club. Cannons 2A of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges prohibits the appearance of impropriety and 2C prohibits membership in a discriminatory organization. The commentary for 2C states:
in lieu of resigning, [the judge may] make immediate and continuous efforts to have the organization discontinue its invidiously discriminatory practices. If the organization fails to discontinue its invidiously discriminatory practices as promptly as possible (and in all events within two years of the judge’s first learning of the practices), the judge should resign immediately from the organization.
A Special Committee of the 6th Circuit Judicial Council, by a 10 to 8 vote, found no ethics violation with the judge’s membership in the Belle Meade Club.
From ABA Journal:
A federal bankruptcy judge who tried without success to sponsor an African American as a member of his country club did not violate judicial ethics rules by refusing to resign, an appeals court’s judicial council has found.
There are no blacks and no women as full-fledged members in the Belle Meade Country Club, the Associated Press reports. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge George Paine II has tried for 15 years to diversify the membership of the club, located in a wealthy Nashville suburb.
During his tenure with the all-white golf club, the Judge sponsored only one African-American candidate, Darrell Freeman, whose membership has been pending for over six years without resolution. The Sixth Circuit found no ethics violation because Paine tried really hard to find a token black member to “diversify” and “desegregate” the club.
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