judgesonmerit.org

The Harrisburg Patriot-News featured an op-ed by PMC’s Lynn Marks and Shira Goodman this weekend. The op-ed opens with a question about the money spent in the election — millions by the candidates and perhaps millions more by political parties and other third-party special interests:

Only 20 percent of registered voters voted for a Supreme Court candidate. So, what did that money buy? Diminishing public confidence in our court system.

Marks and Goodman go on to explain the problems caused by the role of money in the electoral process and the inability of the recusal system to address these problems.

Marks and Goodman conclude, “The solution to the problem of money and judges is to get money out of the judicial selection system. The only way to do that effectively is to change the way we pick appellate judges.”  They explain why other proposals, such as campaign finance reform or public financing, would not be as effective “because both maintain the role of money in the selection process.”

The real solution is Merit Selection.  “With a merit selection system, appellate court candidates don’t have to raise money from those who are likely to appear before them. This results in public confidence in the process and trust that the scales of justice are in balance. And, that, in the words of that Mastercard commercial, “is priceless.””

Trackback URI | Comments RSS