Few cases against judges sustained by Judicial Conduct Commission

Looking at the self-evaluation report (pdf) from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, we discover that scarce few complaints against judges result in any sort of disciplinary action, including reprimands, warnings, or "private admonitions." Here's a chart Grits compiled from data on p. 19:


A total of 22 judges over this period resigned in lieu of disciplinary action by the commission, including 10 in FY 2010. (Analyzing details of those stories would make an interesting study of the dark underbelly of Texas jurisprudence!) Of the tiny number of cases resulting in disciplinary actions, a whopping 118 of the 260 sanctions (45.4%) against Texas elected judges over this period were kept private, with details never reported to the public.

In none of those years, though, did the commission take the extraordinary step of recommending the Supreme Court suspend a judge, as they did in William Adams' case.