judgesonmerit.org

Peter Decoursey, Capitol Wire Bureau Chief, asks (subscription required) “Where’s the Public Value” in the current Supreme Court Election.  After discussing the traditional low voter turn-out for judicial elections and the difficulty voters have in getting information relevant to deciding who should serve on the bench, Decoursey concludes:

So you have an election for this important court, whose decisions affect the lives of people every day, and who have a penchant for disallowing legislation. And it’s an election where four out of five Pennsylvanians will sit on their hands. And that one in five or less who does vote won’t know much about either candidate.

Decoursey notes that both candidates — Republican Judge Joan Orie Melvin and Democratic Judge Jack Panella — are qualified to serve on the Supreme Court. He also describes their current advertising war which has turned this campaign nasty and divisive in its homestretch: “And now that both campaigns are acting like campaigns, each said the other’s attacks violated judicial ethics canons.” We’re left, then, with an ugly campaign that is not even likely to bring out the voters.  So, Decoursey asks, what’s the point?

He boils this question down to a basic one (and one we’ve been asking for quite awhile): why are we electing Supreme Court justices?

Since both Melvin and Panella are clearly the type of candidates who would get appointed to a Supreme Court slot if we did it that way here, you have to wonder: what is the value of this election?

Few will vote with any real knowledge of how the future rulings of Panella and Melvin may differ. Few will vote, period. . . .

So we would get the same choice of candidates, but miss out on the unseemly fund-raising from lawyers who will appear before them later, and the wonderful negative ads. . . .

So what is the value of this election? Unlike a presidential or gubernatorial or congressional election, nobody knows the candidates or issues. No issues get vetted or get momentum. There is no real public debate of any value.

And after someone wins on Tuesday, nobody will really know why they won.

It’s not clear where the value lies in this process.

Decoursey has really said all that needs saying.  That leaves us with just this thought: isn’t it time to make these important decisions in a manner that reflects how important they are? Elections aren’t working; Merit Selection is the answer.