judgesonmerit.org

Dan Hull over at What About Paris offers some interesting thoughts on why states should give up on electing judges and make the switch to Merit Selection. The bottom line:

Judges should not have “constituents,” i.e. law firms, and their clients, who make campaign contributions. Right now, in most American states, they do. And there is no way to dress that up.

Hull notes that the very fact that states need campaign contribution laws to regulate judicial campaigns sends two clear – and very disturbing – messages to the public:

1. Judges, like mayors and congressmen, have “constituents”.

2. Justice, like real estate or widgets, is “for sale”.

We know that the public is very concerned about this already.  And Pennsylvania’s most recent Supreme Court election in which two candidates raised nearly $4.67 million isn’t doing anything to ease those concerns.  Indeed, even the candidates themselves expressed concern that the fundraising arms raise made it seem that justice is for sale. And if sitting judges (as both candidates were) are so concerned, that certainly doesn’t send the message that the public has nothing to worry about.

Hull offers this colorful but thought-provoking comment:

We appreciate that many of the some 10,000 elected American judges were excellent lawyers, and that as jurists they do first-rate, honest, exemplary, and often inspiring work. We have indeed stayed loose and open-minded on this subject. Three or four of our friends are former elected state judges. We say hello to them in public–and once even had one to dinner. We would probably not object too strongly if one of our sons or daughters very briefly dated one.

But elected benches are by nature glaringly “fishy” (i.e., “…dang, Nadine, the campaign money to the judge last year…just don’t seem right…the dog don’t hunt…”) to even the most casual observer in the Midwest or South, and wherever else American horse sense abounds.

His solution is one we whole-heartedly endorse for the appellate courts of Pennsylvania: Merit Selection.

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