Judicial Privacy And Deliberations Protected By Massachusetts High Court Decision

In a case that has received wide attention, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has issued a decision barring ethics investigators from asking a Masaschusetts judge how he reached individual decisions during his 21 years on the bench. This is one of the few published decision to recognize a deliberative privilege for the judiciary, with the court concluding that: "the best approach is to consider this privilege narrowly tailored but absolute."

The court sided with other jurisdictions that have ruled...