Judge Edith Jones was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, and until recently was the chief judge of the Fifth Circuit.  She was mentioned during Republican administrations as a possible Supreme Court nominee.

In 2013, Judge Jones gave a speech to the Federalist Society chapter in Pennsylvania.  Shortly after the speech a group of legal ethicists and civil rights groups claimed, among other things, that Judge Jones said in her speech that “racial groups like African-Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime.”

The complaint said such statements violated the judicial code’s requirement that a judge be impartial and avoid damaging public confidence in the judiciary.  In the Washington Post, Professor Eugene Volokh wrote,

The decision is here; it was handed down in August, but it’s only now being publicized, together with an appeal by complainants. The facts are complicated, and the Report of the Special Committee (which begins on page 5) is pretty readable, though long, so I’ll refer readers to it.

Because Jones’s speech wasn’t recorded, and because the witnesses’ recollections differ (and in any case fall prey to the perils inherent in such recollections), it’s not easy to know just what was said.

The propriety of judicial speech is not a simple matter.  Although long, for those interested in the subject, the decision is worth reading.