The paths of justice have some odd twists to them. Consider these
twists. As I wrote in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/legislators-independence-ethics-enfor…; target="”_blank”">a
blog post almost exactly a year ago</a>, both parties to a case
involving a Baltimore council member's alleged acceptance of a bribe
argued that a statutory provision entitled "Action for defamation
against local government

Everyone knows about ambulance-chasing lawyers, but until reading <a href="http://citizensvoice.com/news/ethics-code-would-ban-coroner-s-employees…; target="”_blank”">an
article in today's <i>Citizens' Voice</i> of Luzerne County</a> (PA), I had
never heard of hearse-chasing deputy coroners. Maybe I would have known

How many hats can a local government attorney wear when it comes to
government ethics? This question arises out of a state bar grievance
filed against <a href="http://www.houstontx.gov/legal/about.html&quot; target="”_blank”">Houston's
city
attorney</a> by a member of the city council.<br>
<br>

The way elected officials often think about government ethics
enforcement, it's almost as if they weren't being investigated and given
a hearing, but were being stoned. And in a certain sense, that is what
is happening.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/science/05angier.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article in the New York <i>Times</i> last week</a>, David Sloan Wilson, an

The power of the pen is great, and one place that it is especially
powerful in the field of government ethics is in summaries and
directions. Those who write summaries of ethics laws and directions for
filing complaints or other forms can have an enormous effect on
government ethics, either intentionally or negligently, by
mischaracterizing ethics laws and procedures.<br>
<br>

For Independence Day, here's a blog post that pulls together all
past blog posts on ethics commission independence. EC independence is
essential to an effective and respected ethics program, and yet a small
minority of ECs are truly independent. Those individuals seeking to
make their city or county's EC independent or to set up an independent
EC need all the ammunition they can get. That is, they need to know
what the options are, what the advantages are, and how ineffective and

A trash board member attends a homeowners association meeting to
talk about potential
changes to the city’s residential trash service. Also in attendance is a representative from the company
that has the city's landfill contract. After the trash board member
makes a short speech, she leaves the meeting and asks the company
representative to answer questions from the audience. This was apparently not
planned.<br>
<br>
The city's trash collector, under a contract up for renewal and for

Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit, in <a href="http://articles.law360.s3.amazonaws.com/0253000/253524/10-10088.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">its
decision in <i>U.S. v Renzi</i></a>, considered what constitutes a
"legislative act" with respect to the constitutional Speech or Debate

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/taking-state-laws-account-when-drafti…; target="”_blank”">Last
week, I wrote</a> about a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision
invalidating a Montgomery County's ethics code to the extent it applied to the
employees of independent agencies, such as the district attorney's
office.<br>
<br>

Reading the Supreme Court majority and dissent opinions in <i>McComish v.
Bennett</i> (attached, see below; actually <i>Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v.
Bennett</i> at the Supreme Court level) is a very jarring experience that I
highly recommend to anyone interested in government ethics. One
opinion presents the world as we know it. The other opinion exists in a
different world, a world without action and inaction on the part of