121919 SCJEO, JUD 1-2020

• Case Date: December 19, 2019
• Court: South Carolina

JUD 1-2020 Opinion No. 1-2020 South Carolina Judicial Ethics Opinion Advisory Committee on Standards of Judicial Conduct December 19, 2019           LETITIA H. VERDIN, CHAIR.          RE: Propriety of a full-time magistrate presiding over criminal cases arising out of a special purpose district where the magistrate’s spouse (who is an attorney) is a friend of a board member of a special purpose district.          FACTS          A full-time magistrate judge inquires into the propriety of presiding over criminal cases arising out of a special purpose district (“the District”).^[1] The magistrate’s spouse is an attorney and a friend of a board member of the District (who is also an attorney). Agents of the District— specifically, attorneys and law enforcement officers—prosecute cases before the magistrate. The board member will not appear before the magistrate. The magistrate inquires into the propriety of continuing to preside over criminal cases of the District given the relationship of the District board member with the magistrate’s spouse. The District’s board member and magistrate’s spouse refer cases between themselves and vacation with each other and their spouses.          CONCLUSION          A full-time magistrate may preside over criminal cases involving a special purpose district despite the judge’s spouse’s friendship with a board member of the special purpose district.          OPINION          The Code of Judicial Conduct requires disqualification in certain specified instances, such as where the judge’s spouse is a party or lawyer in the proceeding; where the judge has a personal bias concerning a party or lawyer to the proceeding; where the judge or person within the judge’s household has a more than de minimis economic interest in the proceeding, etc. Canon 3E.(1)(a)-(d). Those circumstances are not present here. The only other section that could potentially apply is the general requirement that a judge should disqualify himself or herself if the judge’s...