QUESTION: May a judge serve on the Institutional Review Board of the Mexia State School?

FACTS: The Mexia State School is a state eleemosynary institution. Tex. Rev. Civ. Stat. Ann. Art. 3263c (Vernon 1968). The Institutional Review Board, appointed by the superintendent of the school, is responsible generally for reviewing and overseeing research at the school.

ANSWER: The Committee is of the opinion that service on the Mexia State School Institutional Review Board would violate the Code of Judicial Conduct. Canon 5G restricts a judge's service on governmental boards by providing that a judge should not accept appointment to a governmental committee, commission or other position that is concerned with issues of fact of policy on matters other than the improvement of the law, the legal system, or the administration of justice.