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October 31, 2011
Why are Americans still Popularly Electing State Judges?
Our short version for the rabble. Are we nuts? Or just too lazy to get state legislatures to change? Popular election judiciary schemes are bad for good business clients--and their lawyers. And they send bad-smelling messages to all clients, all Americans, and the entire world about the nature of justice in America: (1) Judges have "constituents"; and (2) Justice here is "for sale". But 39 states still keep these systems in place. Do see "Choose Judges on Merit", a site by our favorite sane voice in the wilderness, Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.
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Posted by JD Hull at October 31, 2011 12:59 AM
Comments
Thanks for the kind words and for your support of our reform efforts. The more people hear about the problems inherent in electing judges, the more they are willing to support reform. We need the legislature to put this on the ballot and let Pennsylvanians decide if they want to find a better way to select appellate court judges.
Posted by: Shira Goodman at October 17, 2011 01:48 PM
I actually don't have a problem with the public electing judges anymore than I have with them electing representatives. They don't research candidates much for either. The problem with removing judges from election is that it takes it from cronyism at a populist level to cronyism at the statehouse. Maybe I'm just biased, coming from Illinois.
There are ways to make the election of judges better, and avoid the issues of judges with contributor constituents:
1. Eliminate party affiliation. Simply require all judges to run as unaffiliated candidates, or independents.
2. Public financing. Prohibit all campaign contributions and have all campaigns receive an equal amount of public financing.
I personally like the idea of my judges being chosen of the people. I don't like money influencing those decisions. But I see things like the holdup of appointments to the Fed. bench due to political in-fighting and pretty blatent cronyism at the Federal level and don't think that's much better.
Posted by: Dave! at October 25, 2011 01:01 PM