Mississippi Advisory Opinions September 22, 1993: AGO 000006999 (September 22, 1993)
Collection: Mississippi Attorney General Opinions
Docket: AGO 000006999
Date: Sept. 22, 1993
Advisory Opinion Text
AGO 000006999.
DOCK 1993-0658
AUTH Mike Lanford
DATE 19930922
RQNM James Walters
SUBJ Justice Court Judges
SBCD 100
TEXT James A. Walters, Esquire
Attorney for Lowndes County
Board of Supervisors
P. O. Box 1364
Columbus, MS 39703
Dear Mr. Walters:
Attorney General Mike Moore has received your request for an opinion and has assigned it to me for research and reply. Your letter asks:
1. Does the Justice Court Judge vacate his Judgeship upon qualifying as a candidate? The Code of Judicial Conduct, Canon 7 says "A judge should resign his office when he becomes a candidate either in a party primary or in a general election for a non-judicial office, except that he may continue to hold his judicial office while being a candidate for election or serving as a delegate in a state constitutional convention, if he is otherwise permitted by law to do so." 2. "Should" is not the same as shall and what, if anything, would be the penalty if the Justice Court Judge does not resign his office upon qualifying for the office of Mayor?
In response I refer to the recent Mississippi case, Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance v. Mark Ishee, No. 92-CC-499, decided September 2, 1993. This opinion states that a sitting judge must resign his or her position to run for any office other than another judgeship. See slip opinion at page 10. The Opinion states that in the context of Judicial Canon 7 the word "should" is equivalent to the word "shall". Slip opinion, page 7.
In specific response to your second question we cannot predict what the Supreme Court might impose as a penalty on each judge who does not resign his office upon qualifying for a non-judicial office. However, in the Ishee case the Court fined the judge the amount of his salary for the time that he qualified to run for the non-judicial office through the date of the election. This amounted to $5,600.00. The Court also issued a public reprimand. In addition, the Court stated that if the judge had not been elected to the non-judicial office for which he ran, and had continued to sit as justice court judge, the Court would have been compelled to remove him from office for his wrongdoing. Slip opinion at page 15.
Please contact us if you have any further questions.
Very truly yours,
MIKE MOORE, ATTORNEY GENERAL
By: Mike Lanford Special Assistant Attorney General
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