judgesonmerit.org

Former United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor minced no words in describing her opinion about judicial elections to the American Bar Association Journal: “They’re awful. I hate them.”

Justice O’Connor’s comments came in an interview following her remarks to the ABA’s Summit on Fair and Impartial Courts. During those remarks, she warned:

“The public is growing increasingly skeptical of elected judges in particular.” She was referencing surveys showing that more than 70 percent of the public and more than a quarter of judges are considerably more distrustful of their judges than they have been in the past.

Public trust and confidence in courts and judges is the foundation on which our justice system rests. The confidence is increasingly undermined by expensive, divisive partisan elections.

Writing on the Blog of Legal Times, Tony Mauro noted that Justice O’Connor “voiced concern that the public will view judges as “just politicians in robes.”  But judges are different from other elected officials and play a very different role in our system of government.  Here’s the problem: If we continue to treat our future judges like other elected officials until the moment they take the bench — including requiring them to campaign and raise money like other candidates — how do we guarantee that judges can succesfully fulfill their special role?