I previously blogged the 2004 directive (12-04) issued by the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts, ordering all New Jersey state court judges to refrain from filling out the reputational survey for the U.S. News law school rankings.  The New Jersey Supreme Court yesterday lifted the gag order in Directive 18-08:

Judges in your vicinage may recently have received a request to complete this year’s US News & World Report questionnaire rating the various law schools throughout the United States, including New Jersey’s three law schools. Directive #12-04, issued on October 27, 2004, advised judges that it would be inappropriate for judges to provide ratings of law schools as part of US News & World Report’s survey of “America’s Best Graduate Schools”. The Supreme Court has revisited the issue. The Justices were concerned that New Jersey’s nonparticipation may have disadvantaged its law schools. The Court has determined that judicial participation in the survey does not violate any ethical canons and that it, therefore, would not be inappropriate to complete the questionnaire. Accordingly, Directive #12-04 is rescinded. Please so advise the judges in your vicinage.

From today's New Jersey Law Journal:

New Jersey law deans will welcome the new policy. The 2004 directive that imposed the gag drew protests from the deans that judges were better positioned than anyone else to evaluate graduates.

Still, U.S. News director of data research Robert Morse says it's dubious that judges' input will make a noticeable difference. "Given the number of surveys we get, having a couple answered versus not answered isn't going to change anybody's score," he says.

Interestingly, New Jersey law deans may come to regret the new policy:  their schools have scored  higher since New Jersey judges stopped voting in the reputational survey: