judgesonmerit.org

Bill White of the Allentown Morning Call, writing a post-election wrap-up, reiterates his belief that Pennsylvania should use Merit Selection to choose appellate court judges.  He reasons that most voters have little or no information to guide them in making decisions about who should sit on the appellate courts and that political party endorsements play too great a role in influencing who reaches the bench.  He concludes:

So I advocate merit selection for our state judges. It wouldn’t remove all the politics, but at least it would ensure we get competent people in there.

This echoes something we’ve long understood: it’s not possible to take all the politics out of a judicial selection system.  But it is possible to reduce the role of party politics and other factors irrelevant to being qualified to serve as a judge — like fundraising ability, ballot position, and county of residence. It is also possible to emphasize qualifications, skill and experience in the selection process.  Merit Selection is the way to accomplish this.

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