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December 4, 2013

NY's Moreland Commission Recommendations Too Criminally Oriented

New York State's Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption filed a preliminary report on Monday. Most of the report involves state campaign finance and election laws, but many of these laws affect local government practices, as well. Those involving government ethics criminalize it, and …
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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play December 3, 2013

Nagle on Withdrawal As Cure for Campaign Contributions

It was pointed out to me by Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School Los Angeles, that back in 2000 John Copeland Nagle, a professor at Notre Dame Law School, wrote a law review article suggesting what I call the Westminster Approach to campaign contributions from those seeking benefits from…
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Enforcement & Complaints December 2, 2013

Carrigan Decision: Seeking Ethics Advice Is Due Process

The long-running Carrigan case (Carrigan I, that is) may have finally come to an end. And it's a very good end. After the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Carrigan's absurd argument that a council member has a First Amendment free speech right to vote on legislative matters where he is conflicted, the …
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Enforcement & Complaints November 26, 2013

Law Firm Turns to Logical Fallacies to Defend Its Non-Compliance with Ethics-Related Subpoenas

In New York State, lawyers are once again insisting that they are an exception to ethics laws. The Moreland Commission, a special investigatory commission called by the governor and consisting of district attorneys and other law enforcement officials, has subpoenaed the employers of several state l…
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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play November 25, 2013

When Campaign Finance Oversight Sucks Up an Ethics Program's Resources

An editorial in yesterday's New Orleans Times-Picayune points out a problem that is common to many ethics programs that have jurisdiction over both conflicts of interest and campaign finance:  campaign finance sucks up the program's resources, leaving too few resources for other things, including t…
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November 25, 2013

Top Tallahassee Officials Oppose Ethics Advisory Panel Recommendations

Now that Tallahassee's mayor has opposed all of the recommendations from a special ethics advisory panel (attached; see below), according to an article last week in the Tallahassee Democrat, it's about time to look at those recommendations and what, it appears, is going to happen to them. The mayor…
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Ethics Commissions & Administration November 22, 2013

Too Conflicted to Sit on an Ethics Commission

It should be heartening to announce that the head of an important good government organization has been appointed to the North Carolina Ethics Commission. But sadly, it is not. Francis X. De Luca is the president of the Civitas Institute, which has taken strong stands for improving North Carolina's…
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Transparency & Disclosure November 20, 2013

How Much Needs to Be Disclosed?

Maryland has a rule that local ethics ordinances must require the disclosure of all an elected official's real property, stocks, and bonds. According to an article in the Carroll County Times, the Mount Airy council keeps passing an ethics ordinance that requires the disclosure only of real propert…
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Enforcement & Complaints November 20, 2013

An Ethics Complaint Against a Lawyer on a Local EC

Many people think that lawyers make the best ethics commission members. In fact, many ethics codes require that at least some members of an ethics commission be lawyers. However, lawyers are the individuals most likely to have relationships and obligations that conflict with the obligations they ha…
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Conflicts of Interest November 19, 2013

The Conflicts That Arise When Coroners Are Part of a Sheriff Office

A Bakersfield Californian editorial on Saturday points out the kinds of conflict situation that arise when, to save money, a coroner office is brought into a sheriff or police department office. A conflict situation arises when a coroner is asked to determine the cause of death of a jail inmate, of…
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