Is it permissible for a municipal judge to hire his or her brother's daughter to file backlog documents and pay her with the judge's own money?

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Only if the aunt is not related
• D. Only if the city funds are used

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that using private funds to hire a relative for administrative, non-judicial tasks avoids using public resources and does not tie the relative to official court actions. If the judge pays with personal money and the work is purely clerical (like filing backlog documents) with no influence on decisions or official duties, there is no misallocation of public funds and no appearance of using office power to benefit a relative. As long as the arrangement is clearly private, with work that doesn’t affect adjudication or policymaking, it’s permissible. The other considerations would come into play only if public funds were involved or the employment could influence or appear to influence the judge’s official actions.