The term "significant purpose" was a deliberate choice of words. The policy approved by the Conference contemplated that the education of judges could be less than the main or dominant (or even primary) purpose, but nonetheless important and not de minimis. The
following examples are intended to illustrate the application of the "significant purpose" benchmark:
Illustration 1: A law school is sponsoring a CLE program on intellectual property for lawyers, and it intends to invite a judge (who would be reimbursed for the expenses of travel) to participate in the program as a speaker. The law school does not intend to invite or reimburse other judges for the expenses of their attendance as speakers, panelists, or students.
The policy applies to "a program, a significant purpose of which is the education of United States federal or state judges." Based upon the facts of this case, it would appear that the education of federal and state judges is not a significant purpose of this program.
Illustration 2: A law school is sponsoring a seminar captioned, "Judging
Economic and Financial Crimes." The program faculty consists of law professors and federal judges (who will be reimbursed for the expenses of their attendance from a law school foundation). The program is marketed to federal and state judges, as well judges from other common law countries (some of whom will be reimbursed for the expenses of their attendance).
As discussed above, the policy applies to "a program, a significant purpose of which is the education of United States federal or state judges." Based upon the facts of this case, it would appear that a significant purpose is the education of federal or state judges.
Illustration 3: A 501(c)(3) organization is sponsoring an educational program for hundreds of practicing bankruptcy practitioners, accountants, lenders, and other bankruptcy professionals. Among other things, the program will cover the current state of bankruptcy law, how to present a case, and ethics. The program is marketed to the public generally. Although judges are invited to speak and to present papers, the involvement of judges is for the purpose of informing the non-judge registrants, not to educate judges. The topics, speakers, and other details of the program are selected by the program provider to address topics of interest to professionals and to the public, not to address issues of interest to judges. No consideration is given by the organization to promote judicial education. The organization intends to invite 10 federal judges to serve on the faculty for the program, and those judges will be reimbursed for their travel expenses. Other judges are eligible to attend the program; however, they must pay for their travel expenses out-of-pocket. Judges generally account for a minor fraction of the attendees.
Once again, the policy applies to "a program, a significant purpose of which is the education of United States federal or state judges." Under the facts set forth above, it does not appear that the program has, as a significant purpose, the education of judges. Therefore, the program would not appear to be covered by the policy.