judgesonmerit.org

At her swearing in ceremony on Monday, Lorie Gildea, the newly appointed Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court decried the increasingly political nature of judicial elections in her state.

There are those who are working very hard to turn our judges into politicians and judicial campaigns into partisan bickering battles.

Like most states that continue to elect their judges, Minnesota’s judicial elections have become alarmingly more expensive in recent years. And as much of the money used to fund these races is raised by political parties, it is now nearly impossible to distinguish judicial elections from elections for other public offices. The problem is that judges, unlike other elected public officials like legislators or governors, are not intended to represent any one constituency.

The Chief Justice warned that partisan politics threatens the presumed impartiality of judicial decision-making.

It’s wrongheaded to insert political parties into our judicial selection process. We do not want judges deciding cases based on campaign contributions or party platforms.

We agree, and Pennsylvania faces the same trouble: Judicial elections have become so driven by politics that it is difficult for the public to feel confident that the courts have not succumbed as well. That is why Pennsylvania should do away with judicial elections entirely and switch to a merit selection form of judicial selection. This is the only way to restore public confidence in the justice system.

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