Reprimanded Supreme Court Justice Unrepentant Sanders Spoke At Anti-Abortion Rally Following His Swearing-In Last Year

A state board Monday reprimanded Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders, saying he weakened public confidence in the judiciary by speaking at an anti-abortion rally after his swearing-in last year.

A bitter and unrepentant Sanders said the finding violates his First Amendment right to free speech.

Sanders, who contends he is being punished for holding his views rather than for expressing them publicly, said he would appeal the reprimand to a panel of State Court of Appeals judges.

The Judicial Conduct Commission also ordered Sanders to take a course in judicial ethics within six months.

The ruling followed a two-day hearing in March on assertions that the conservative justice had breached his duty to remain impartial on an issue that could come before the court, in this case abortion rights.

Specifically, the 11-member panel said Sanders violated the Code of Judicial Conduct by “failing to personally observe high standards of judicial conduct and by diminishing public confidence in the judiciary; improperly lending the prestige of his office to a particular organization engaged in advancing the interests of one side of a political controversy,” and “by engaging in political activity other than to improve the law, the legal system, or the administration of justice.”

Sanders’ case marked the first time the 16-year-old commission had even considered disciplining a member of the state’s highest court.

At issue was a 98-word speech Sanders made - an hour after he was sworn in for his first six-year term - to abortion protesters at the annual “March for Life” rally at the Capitol.

Sanders was defended by the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued that judges do not give up their constitutional free-speech rights when they take the bench.

In its ruling, the commission said Sanders speech by itself was not a violation, but that the “manner and context” of the remarks were.

The commission, made up of judges, lawyers and lay people, determined the anti-abortion rally was a political rally and that by addressing the gathering, Sanders aligned himself with a political agenda that “went beyond the mere expression of his opinion.”

Violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct can bring admonishment, reprimand or censure. Censure, the most serious, could have included a recommendation that Sanders’ colleagues on the Supreme Court remove him from office.

“I think that I did nothing wrong,” Sanders told reporters after the commission issued its ruling. “Judges announce their views on all kinds of things all the time.”

Asked whether he thought he would have been hauled before the commmission if he had appeared at a prochoice rally, he said, “I don’t think I would be.”