Watchdog Wary of Call for Partisanship in WI Court Election
An unusual debate has emerged in this year’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election. Candidate Vince Megna has declared he is a Democrat and has encouraged other candidates to state their political ideology in the formally non-partisan contest (see Gavel Grab).
One watchdog who’s concerned about the idea of a partisan contest has cautioned that it could bring even greater problems for judicial elections already soaked in special interest money.
According to a Milwaukee Public Radio report, Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign warned, “That’s the kind of thing that Wisconsin for a century and a half was able to steer clear of, well we are not steering clear of that problem anymore and we have to come to terms with it. I don’t think the solution is to throw up our hands and accept that we’ve got a partisan court. We can do better than that.” His group is a Justice at Stake partner group.
Attorney Megna said many voters, when he was collecting nomination signatures, asked about his party affiliation. “Virtually 90 percent of them would ask me, what are you, meaning are you a Democrat or a Republican and I would tell them, and to not tell them is just furthering the sham that this is a non partisan election because everybody knows it’s not, it’s the opposite, it’s very partisan.”
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OR Chief Justice: Courts Need Funding for ‘Equal Justice for All’
When Chief Justice Thomas Balmer of the Oregon Supreme Court (photo) appealed for reversal of some court spending and staffing cuts, he focused on serving the people who use the court and on helping judges work more efficiently.
“Delivering justice is a noble goal,” Balmer said in his first state of the courts address, according to a Statesman Journal article. “As a state, we need to give our institutions the tools they need to work toward equal justice for all.”
“We can improve our productivity if we can add back some of the staff we have cut,” Chief Justice Balmer added. “We can help judges work more efficiently.”
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Editorials Seek Nonpartisan Judicial Selection in MI, NC
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory recently killed a judicial selection commission that his predecessor had established to remove politics from judicial selection.
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway announced her resignation last week, in light of a lawsuit accusing her bank fraud and money laundering.
Now, newspaper editorials are portraying these episodes as opportunities for both states to reform current processes and adopt nonpartisan procedures for selecting judges.
A Winston-Salem Journal editorial argues that McCrory and North Carolina would benefit from a constitutional amendment establishing merit selection of state appellate judges. Read more
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Tags: Michigan, North Carolina
Monday Gavel Grab Briefs
In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:
- In an interview for the Los Angeles Times, law professor Anita Hill said she has “no regrets” about going to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearing in 1991.
- Virginia interim Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland is scheduled to be interviewed by the state House and Senate committees for a full-time appointment to the District Court. Thorne-Begland’s appointment will expire next month if he is not confirmed by the Legislature, says the Associated Press.
- Reelected Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore may leave a “pro-Christian, anti-science” mark on the state’s judicial branch for a generation says a Slate article. Moore previously served as chief justice, but was removed from the bench for refusing to follow a court order concerning the removal of a Ten Commandments monument.
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Justice Sotomayor’s Memoir Sparks Media Blitz
The weekend produced a media blitz about Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s autobiography, “My Beloved World.”
While the book is short on clues about her legal philosophy, one of the most intriguing reviews examined her memoir in light of the debate at the time of her nomination — it was 2009 — over President Obama’s spoken desire for empathy as an “essential ingredient” for reaching “just [judicial] decisions and outcomes.” Dahlia Lithwick concludes in her Slate book review :
“The life of the judicial ‘empathy standard’ lasted all of about three months in 2009; it ultimately died for lack of a champion. Sotomayor’s memoir may not mollify those who criticized her for once suggesting that sometimes a ‘wise Latina woman’ might arrive at different conclusions than other judges. But credit her with this: Although she said at her confirmation that what’s in a jurist’s heart doesn’t matter, she has spent her life imagining her way into the hearts of everyone around her.“
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Justice at Stake Hires New Staff for Key Positions
Justice at Stake has announced the hiring of staff for a number of key positions in recent months. JAS is a nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign working to keep America’s courts fair and impartial. The following hires were announced:
Deborah Dubois, Deputy Executive Director for Development, joined JAS after eight years as the Vice President of Development, Marketing & Communications at the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA).
Laurie Kinney, Director of Communications and Public Education, came to JAS after serving as Director of Communications and Outreach for the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, a nonpartisan science and technology policy research organization in Arlington, Va.
Debra Erenberg was named Director of State Affairs. She came to JAS from Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), where she worked as Midwest Regional Director, serving as the lead staff person on human rights advocacy efforts in 13 states.
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Friday Gavel Grab Briefs
In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:
- In a Huffington Post video, Mike Sacks discusses with Frank Argote-Freyre, Sen. Ronald Rice (D-NJ) and Sen. Kip Bateman (R-NJ) how New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s nomination of an Asian-American to the state Supreme Court has prompted a debate on the definition of diversity.
- Ben Overton, Arthur England Jr., Joseph Hatchett and Alan Sundberg forever changed the face of the Florida Supreme Court during the 1970s, says a Palm Beach Post opinion. The four became known as reformers of the state’s highest court.
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Commentary: Abandon Alabama Partisan Elections for Judges
There is no “worse way to select judges than in partisan elections,” says retiring Alabama Circuit Court Judge Scott Vowell. “I think this last round in November showed what happens,” he added in an Alabama Media Group article.
Alabama allows straight ticket voting in elections, which can lead to some judges being ousted from the bench simply for having a D or an R after their names. This is a consequence of partisan politics, and is not based on the judges’ merit, Vowell says.
Vowell will be stepping down from the bench this week since he is now 75 years old and can no longer start a new term under Alabama law. However, he plans to open a private judging practice and will not be retiring.
He noted a preference for state lawmakers to create a non-partisan merit system for selecting judges. This way, a panel composed of a judge, two lawyers and two lay people would screen potential candidates and send the three most qualified names to Alabama’s governor. Read more
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High Court Won’t Intervene in Orie Melvin Prosecution
Justice Joan Orie Melvin of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, a suspended judge who faces trial this month on public corruption charges, lost a bid to halt her prosecution.
The state Supreme Court rejected her motion for it to take jurisdiction over the case, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article. Justice Orie Melvin is accused of using her court staff to help her campaign for the state Supreme Court in 2003 and in 2009. To learn more about the case, see Gavel Grab.
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White House Cites Female Judges in Defending Diversity Record
Defending President Obama’s diversity record, White House spokesman Jay Carney pointed on Wednesday to the president’s appointment of two Supreme Court justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Facing press questioning, Carney also said Obama’s record on diversity “speaks for itself,” according to a Washington Times article. According to a transcript of the White House press briefing, Carney provided the following detail:
“And when it comes to judges, 47 percent of President Obama’s confirmed judges — and we have an issue with confirmation here with Senate as you know — but the 47 percent of those who have been confirmed have been women compared to 22 percent for President George W. Bush and 29 percent for President Clinton.”
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