judgesonmerit.org

Above Average Jane’s post today raises the question of how best to select judges in Pennsylvania:

The question of whether or not judges should be elected at all comes up in a lot of the reading I’ve been doing. Since most voters don’t pay much attention to judicial races many of the campaign donors are lawyers. The same lawyers that will be presenting cases before whoever wins the judicial race. Is that a good idea?

Jane alerts her readers to our blog, and notes that her research to date leads her to lean towards supporting “appointment with a vote on retention.”  This sounds close to Merit Selection — where the citizen based nominating commission screens candidates and recommends the most highly qualified to the Governor; the Governor nominates someone from this list; the Senate must confirm; and the judge, after an initial four year term and then again every ten years, stands before the public in a retention election.

Thanks, Jane for the spot light on our work.  We hope the people of Pennsylvania will keep thinking and talking about the best way to pick our judges.