judgesonmerit.org

Minnesota Public Radio reports that in a recent speech, former United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor praised merit selection as a good way to choose judges.  She spoke during a forum focusing on changing the way Minnesota selects its judges.  Justice O’Connor particularly noted that merit selection systems increase diversity on the courts: “In my home state with a merit selection system, we got much greater diversity on the bench, both racial and gender. . . . And it’s worked very effectively, more so than the election system did.”

  In Minnesota, there’s growing concern about the fairness of a judiciary chosen by partisan elections. With a Merit Selection bill pending in the Minnesota legislature, the Park Rapids Enterprise has published an editorial urging its readers to contact their legislators in support of the plan, “before Minnesota becomes one of the states where money rules in judicial elections.” You can read the entire editorial by following this link. (free, requires registration)