We're Still Part of the Community: Judge J. Dean Lewis on Judicial Involvement
From Spring 1997Volume IV, Number 1
In these edited excerpts
from Beyond the Bench, Judge J. Dean Lewis of Spotsylvania, Virginia,
discusses judicial neutrality and her involvement with community activism.
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, of which I am a member and an officer, has asserted the position that judges should be proactive in their community-that judges should get out from behind the bench and speak. I don't know of any state code on judicial ethics that would prevent a judge from educating the public about issues involving children and alcohol. The judge can be involved in a community-wide group that addresses the issues of youth alcohol and drug use, by being the convener of that group, as I did, or if that group already exists, by going to meetings. You have to be very careful what you say at meetings [so] you are not perceived by the public as having lost your neutrality.
I, as the judge, was the convener. I sent out invitations, called the local paper and radio, and said, "We are going to have a meeting to talk about the issues of alcohol and drugs as they affect our children. And everyone is invited." What we did was to look at, first, what did we feel was our most serious youth alcohol and drug problem. And then look at our existing resources. And it was amazingŠ There were resources we [in the court system] did not know about: churches, charitable organizations, and support groups for youth. The second step was to look at the resources. We did an inventory of those resources. The third step was to look for gaps in resources. And the fourth [step] was to approach the problem of children with drugs and alcohol.
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