Opinion 25-108

September 10, 2025

Digest:  (1) A judge may serve as chair of a non-fund-raising Veterans Day parade and may invite local organizations and businesses to participate in the parade. 
(2) A full-time judge may not serve in the role of Judge Advocate for a local American Legion post.

Rules:   22 NYCRR 100.2; 100.2(A); 100.3(A); 100.4(A)(1)-(3); 100.4(C)(3); 100.4(C)(3)(b)(i); 100.4(F)-(G); Opinions 21-112; 20-13; 12-23; 09-28.

Opinion:

          A full-time judge who is a veteran asks if he/she may serve as chair of a Veterans Day parade and as “Judge Advocate” of an American Legion post. 

          A judge must always avoid even the appearance of impropriety and act to promote public confidence in the judiciary’s integrity and impartiality (see 22 NYCRR 100.2; 100.2[A]).  A judge’s judicial duties take precedence over all the judge’s other activities (see 22 NYCRR 100.3[A]).  Extra-judicial activities must therefore be compatible with judicial office and must not cast doubt on the judge’s impartiality, detract from judicial dignity, or interfere with judicial duties (see 22 NYCRR 100.4[A][1]-[3]).  In general, a judge may serve as a “an officer, director, trustee or non-legal advisor” of a not-for-profit fraternal or civic organization, subject to certain limitations (22 NYCRR 100.4[C][3]).  For example, a judge must “not personally participate in the solicitation of funds or other fund-raising activities” (22 NYCRR 100.4[C][3][b][i]) and a full-time judge may neither practice law nor perform judicial functions in a private capacity (see 22 NYCRR 100.4[F]-[G]).

1. Veterans Day Parade

          The judge’s duties as parade chair include sending e-mails to local organizations and businesses, inviting them to participate in the parade, free of charge.  The parade is not a fund-raiser and the judge’s duties do not involve fund-raising. 

          We have advised that judges may organize non-fund-raising sports races (see Opinion 20-13) and golf outings (see Opinion 12-23), and may invite members of the local legal or sports communities to participate.  They may do so even if participants “will pay a modest fee to cover event costs” (see Opinion 20-13).  We have further advised that the judge, as organizer, “may personally apply for routine permits and approvals,” provided he/she does not reference or invoke his/her judicial title (id.). 

          Here, too, we conclude this judge may likewise chair a non-fund-raising Veterans Day parade and invite businesses and organizations to participate.

2. Judge Advocate of American Legion Post

          According to the American Legion’s 2024 officer’s guide, the judge advocate “supplies professional advice in the conduct of post business or to procure proper counsel” and “shall preside at the trial” of “the accused” if the post wishes to expel or suspend a member for cause.  The guide further exhorts incoming judge advocates as follows:

To you is assigned a most important duty for which your legal training and/or past Legion experience so aptly prepare you. You are the interpreter of the constitution and by-laws of your post, and may at any time be called upon by the commander and other officers and members of the post to rule upon the legality of their actions and decisions insofar as they affect the good of The American Legion. You are also charged with protecting the integrity of our organization and keeping alight the torch of truth and fidelity that symbolizes the high and ennobling ideals under which our great American Legion was founded. Protect that heritage.

          We have advised that a part-time judge may serve as judge advocate for an American Legion post (see Opinions 21-112; 09-28).  This advice necessarily depended upon the judge’s part-time status because “[w]hile a full-time judge is precluded from conducting disciplinary hearings in a private capacity and may not serve a fraternal or civic organization as a legal advisor, a part-time judge is not so restricted” (Opinion 09-28 [citations omitted]). 

          As a full-time judge may not serve as the post’s legal advisor and may not conduct disciplinary hearings in a private capacity (see 22 NYCRR 100.4[F]-[G]), we conclude this judge may not serve as judge advocate of a local American Legion post.