California Supreme Court: Judges may no longer participate in the Boy Scouts

In an announcement issued late this afternoon (Friday, January 23), the Supreme Court of California said it had unanimously voted to eliminate an exception in Canon 2C of the California Code of Judicial Ethics that permitted judges to belong to nonprofit youth organizations that practice invidious discrimination.

The Supreme Court’s decision follows the recommendation of its Advisory Committee on the Code of Judicial Ethics to eliminate the exception for nonprofit youth groups from an ethics rule that prohibits judges from holding membership in any organization that practices invidious discrimination on the basis of race, sex, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.