judgesonmerit.org

CNN reported yesterday that retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a long-time advocate of merit-selection, has lent her name and her support to a project that will work to change the way state judges reach the bench. While many states already have some form of merit selection in place, others, including Pennsylvania, continue to elect their judges in contested partisan elections.

The O’Connor Judicial Selection Initiative, created by the Denver-based Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, hopes to change that by assisting state-level reform efforts. O’Connor expressed her concern that judicial elections lead to both a loss of judicial independence and a loss of public confidence in the court system:

Studies show that roughly 70 percent of the public believe judges are influenced by campaign contributions, and more than one quarter of judges agree.

This is alarming because the legitimacy of the judiciary rests entirely on its promise to be fair and impartial. A judge’s sole constituency should be the law. If the public loses faith in that impartiality, then there is no reason to prefer the judge’s interpretation of the law to the opinions of the real politicians representing the electorate.

Unlike other elected officials, a judge’s role is not to be responsive to the public. Judges have a duty to be impartial and to adhere to the rule of law, even if than means making unpopular decisions.

Judges themselves admit that impartiality may be compromised by the abundance of “cash in the courtroom”—the result of campaign contributions made by third parties to the judge’s campaign.

Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who supports changing his state’s voter-based system, has also said that money needs to be taken out of the equation in order to maintain public confidence. This would mean a switch to merit selection. Hopefully, with insight and aid from the likes of O’Connor and Moyer, states will be encouraged to re-evaluate and reform the ways in which their judges are selected.

In our neighboring state of Ohio, Supreme Court justices are elected into office.  And with the Supreme Court making as many important decisions affecting political matters as it does, reports the Dayton Daily News, the design of the system itself creates a problem:

Some court observers say bias is inevitable when justices are elected by popular vote and receive campaign contributions that can run into the millions.

The retiring Chief Justice, Thomas Moyer, believes in the integrity of his Court and its decisions, but he acknowledged the public perception that “justice is for sale.”  The article quotes two well-known studies demonstrating that the perception is indeed wide-spread:

A 2008 American Bar Association poll found 79 percent of adults believed judges should not be allowed to accept money from “special interests.”

A 2002 poll sponsored by the Ohio League of Women Voters . . . found 83 percent of Ohio registered voters believe campaign contributions influence judges either to a great extent or somewhat.”

This trend is typical of a state that has popular elections of judges, especially one like Ohio, which from 1998-2008 spent over $20 million on judicial campaigns.  The paper cited Ohio as being the second largest spender on judicial elections in the last decade after Alabama (with $40.9 million raised).  Pennsylvania’s 2007 contest alone involved over $7.8 million in direct contributions to judicial candidates.

To combat the popular perception that judicial independence is threatened, Chief Justice Moyer is organizing a conference, along with the Ohio State Bar Association and the League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund, which he hopes will raise momentum for a change to Ohio’s electoral system.  We hope Justice O’Connor, who will be participating in the conference and is a fierce advocate of Merit Selection, can convince the state of the benefits of choosing judges on merit.