CANON 2--JUDGES SHOULD AVOID IMPROPRIETY AND THE
              APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY IN ALL
                      THEIR ACTIVITIES

    (A) Judges should respect and comply with the law and act at all times
in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and
impartiality of the judiciary.
    (B) Judges should not allow family, social, or other relationships to
influence their judicial conduct or judgment. Judges should not lend the
prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge
or others; nor should judges convey or permit others to convey the
impression that they are in a special position to influence them. Judges
should not testify voluntarily as character witnesses.

                          Comment
    Maintaining the prestige of judicial office is essential to a system of
government in which the judiciary functions independently of the executive
and legislative branches. Respect for the judicial office facilitates the
orderly conduct of legitimate judicial functions. Judges should distinguish
between proper and improper use of the prestige of office in all of their
activities.
    The testimony of judges as character witnesses injects the prestige of
their office into the proceeding in which they testify and may be
misunderstood to be an official testimonial. This canon, however, does not
afford judges a privilege against testifying in response to a subpoena.

    (C) Judges should not hold membership in any organization practicing
discrimination prohibited by law.

[Canon 2 and Comment amended effective March 25, 1988; June 23, 1995.]