Electing Judges

They’re not politicians, so they shouldn’t act like them.

The trouble with electing judges
| The Economist |

Excerpt:

OF ALL the ways in which America is exceptional, its practice of electing judges is one of the least obvious and most striking. The spectacle of someone who has the power to hand out death sentences making stump speeches, seeking endorsements and raising funds has long seemed odd to outsiders. Alexis de Tocqueville, whose travels around the country coincided with the spread of judicial elections, predicted that “these innovations will, sooner or later, have disastrous results.” It is a view shared by many of the judges running for office around the country.

Judicial elections are becoming a lot like any other. Tennessee’s recent race was a good example. A few days before the poll Gary Wade, the chief justice on the state’s Supreme Court, sat in his office, a room enlivened by a bearskin rug on the floor, complete with paws and snarling mouth. Mr Wade had faced the voters five times before, but this election was the first time he had to do any actual campaigning. Tennessee’s race became unexpectedly political: the three judges up for retention were hit with adverts denouncing them as Obamacare-loving liberals, though their court has never ruled on the subject. The judges responded by raising over $1m to buy adverts of their own.

PrawfsBlawg: Law and Politics

 Since candidates must sign off on their campaign-finance reports, they know who has given money. One of Mr Wade’s donors was a lawyer who recently lost a case before him. Throughout the election a judge has to carry on doing his day job: in the afternoon Mr Wade will consider an opinion in the back of a car on the way to a campaign event. “I never thought I would be doing this,” he says. Still, the mudslinging in Tennessee was mild compared with this year’s race in North Carolina, where a judge was attacked in adverts funded by business interests that accused her of being soft on pedophiles.

They’re not politicians, so they shouldn’t act like them

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Source: The trouble with electing judges | The Economist

Kids for Cash chronicles the story of Judge Mark A. Chiavarella, who was convicted in 2011 for sending thousands of children to a juvenile detention facility from which he’d received a “finder’s fee.” Photo: SenArt Films

Elect or Appoint? A Central Debate `
One of the hottest debates in judicial politics today is whether judges should be chosen through competitive election or appointments. Each side has pros and cons.

Election vs. Appointment – JAS http://www.justiceatstake.org394 ×  “Judges must be perceived as beyond price. When litigants go to court they … do not want the umpire calling balls and strikes before the game has begun.” ~  

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