HALT is working to help bring sunshine to the financial holdings of judges. Despite numerous documented incidents where federal judges presided over cases where they had a financial conflict of interest, the public may not review judges' disclosure statements at their local courthouses. Instead, information about a judge's financial interests can only be obtained from the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts in the District of Columbia and the U.S. Judicial Conference failed to adopt rules that would make such information more accessible.

In addition, HALT is striving to end junkets for judges - privately funded judicial seminars where judges are wined and dined at fancy resorts. As a 1998 Washington Post investigation uncovered, these seminars amount to a veiled effort to lobby the judiciary under the guise of "education." A groundbreaking 2000 report from the Community Rights Counsel organization further revealed that corporations are indulging judges with lavish gifts during "seminars that stress economic and policy arguments, which, if adopted by the judges, would advance [the seminar sponsors'] ideological and pecuniary interests."

For the first time in 14 years, the American Bar Association is currently rewriting its Model Rules of Judicial Conduct, and HALT's work is at the center of this critical undertaking. In 2003, HALT filed comments with the ABA's Joint Commission to Evaluate the Model Code, urging the commission to issue clear guidance about that conduct which raises the appearance of impropriety. In 2004, HALT Associate Counsel Suzanne Mishkin testified before the Commission and addressed judges' questions about the boundaries of judicial ethics. HALT continues to track this significant project.