Recent Fair-Courts Articles

"In the fall of 2008, a random sample of registered voters were asked to participate in a survey about the manner in which Washington's judges are selected. Respondents were asked their opinions about the current system, their perceptions about a hypothetical commission or merit system of judicial selection, and their views concerning a number of underlying components of the two judicial selection methods. The results of the study, which involved 1,185 survey respondents from across the state, indicate that Washington voters would support a move toward a merit-selection process for judges if it would provide more citizen input overall than the current open-election system. This article summarizes and discusses the results obtained from this survey."

"After the Supreme Court ruled that companies can spend freely on political advertising campaigns, the immediate reaction from some quarters was dire. Good-government advocates, liberal commentators, even the president warned that a flood of corporate money would overwhelm elections and subvert democracy. But the real impact of the decision is likely to be much less extreme, according to in-house attorneys and election law experts. Few companies are looking for new ways to spend money in these tight times. Plus, many businesses -- especially large corporations -- are aware of the dangers of appearing excessively partisan. In its Jan. 21 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (pdf), the Court said that companies can spend as much as they wish on "independent expenditures" -- that is, on political ads that aren't coordinated with candidates' own campaigns."

"Pssssst! Hey, readers! Want to know a secret? Want to know who bankrolled the TV ads that lambasted then-Wayne County Circuit Judge Diane Hathaway for handing out light sentences to "sex predators" and "terrorist sympathizers" during Hathaway's 2008 campaign for the Michigan Supreme Court? Or better yet -- now that Hathaway has been elected and casts the decisive vote in many 4-3 decisions -- want to know who paid for the TV campaign that depicted her opponent, former Chief Justice Cliff Taylor, falling asleep on the bench? The one most political strategists credit (or blame, depending on their political affiliation) for Hathaway's upset victory over Taylor? Well, tough nuggies, readers! Because it's none of your business who's manipulating this state's elections -- for Supreme Court justice, governor, state legislator or chief medical marijuana inspector."

"In a new poll, more than 60 percent of respondents said televising Supreme Court proceedings would be good for democracy. We agree, but the court seems determined to keep its work out of the public‚s eye. Since 1988, C-Span ˜ which broadcasts Congressional debates, White House news conferences, think tank panels, and all manner of Washington necessities and some oddities ˜ has been asking the Supreme Court for access. The court has consistently refused. When the cable network asked for permission to broadcast the arguments in Bush v. Gore in 2000, the court agreed only to release audiotapes after the fact. In the big University of Michigan affirmative action case of 2003, the court again only released audiotapes."

"IN his State of the Union address, when President Obama criticized the Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Alito shook his head, scowled and mouthed a two-word dissent: “Not true.” Chief Justice John Roberts, meanwhile, smiled serenely, apparently untroubled by the president’s attack. Now we know what Chief Justice Roberts really thinks. Last week, he fired back, describing the scene as “very troubling.” The chief justice painted a harrowing picture of “one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according to the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless.”"

"WASHINGTON ˜ The White House isn't backing down from its criticism of the Supreme Court over a campaign finance ruling. White House officials say President Barack Obama still believes the court made a poor ruling when it allowed corporations and unions to freely spend money on ads for or against specific candidates. Obama adviser David Axelrod says the decision is a threat to democracy. Spokesman Robert Gibbs says interests groups will increase their influence because of the ruling."

"The Obama administration is keeping its options open on where to try the alleged perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. White House adviser David Axelrod, speaking Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said the administration hasn’t made a final decision on the issue yet. “Obviously there are a series of things we have to weigh.” He said it “has to influence our thinking” that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, citing costs, opposed holding civilian trials for terror suspects in the city. Attorney General Eric Holder last November announced plans to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and other suspects in New York. Recently, White House officials have suggested that they were leaning towards trying the group before a military commission, as part of an effort to win congressional support for the administration’s efforts to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba." Click here to read more.

"VICTORVILLE, Calif. -- The judge didn't believe the father was a threat and denied the mother's plea to keep him away from their 9-month-old son. It was a seemingly routine ruling in a busy family law court called on too often to referee passionate fights between broken young families over the care of babies. "My suspicion is that you're lying," Judge Robert Lemkau told Katie Tagle, 23. Ten days later, her 25-year-old ex-boyfriend Stephen Garcia shot and killed their baby son and himself and the case was routine no more. A public frenzy ensued. The community's anger with the judge was vocal and passionate. But it probably would have faded away as just another tragic story in a tough-luck town along the freeway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. But this is California - one of 33 states that elects judges in some form - and it's Lemkau's misfortune that his seat is before voters June 8."

"Though she's never lost a judicial election to the state's highest bench, Michigan State Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Weaver is adamant that the system needs reform. Speaking to the Midland Area League of Women Voters recently, Weaver said that fairer, more impartial courts result from judicial elections that would make it harder to form what she called "power blocs" of judges on the Supreme Court. The Traverse City-based Weaver pointed to the current Supreme Court, whose membership comes mostly from what she called "inside the Detroit-Lansing beltway." She wants to see a process that's more open geographically and more tightly monitored financially across all levels of judgeship. "We need to end the partisan nature of elections," she said. "Diversity breaks up the power blocs.""

"WASHINGTON ˜ Thirteen months into his presidency, Barack Obama finally gave liberal supporters the kind of judicial nominee they had sought and conservatives feared. Goodwin Liu, 39, is an unabashed liberal legal scholar who, if confirmed, could become a force on the federal appeals court for decades. There's talk that in time, the Rhodes Scholar, former high court clerk and current assistant dean and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, could be the first person of Asian descent chosen for the Supreme Court. "I can easily imagine him" as a high court nominee, said Erwin Chemerinsky, a Liu supporter and dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine."

"A current state law that bans donations to political campaigns by corporations would likely be ruled unconstitutional if challenged in court, according to a legal opinion released Friday by the Tennessee Attorney General's office. The Attorney General ruling was requested by Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin, who late last year filed a bill anticipating February's U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. That ruling said corporations could contribute to political campaigns. "In light of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, concluding that there is no legitimate governmental interest that would justify a ban on independent corporate campaign expenditures, a court probably would hold (the Tennessee law) unconstitutional," according to the attorney general's opinion."

"The Washington Post's Dana Milbank dresses up in idiotic costumes, and the overriding attribute of his commentary is adolescent, above-it-all snideness, and he's thus deemed a wild, unpredictable, creative "contrarian" in Beltway media circles. In reality, he's one of the most cliché-ridden purveyors of conventional Washington widsom one can find, as he demonstrates yet again in his column today, where he venerates Lindsey Graham and his quest to statutorily implement a system of military commissions and indefinite detention: But Graham's latest offer should still be taken seriously by Obama's White House, which needs a way to recover from its self-inflicted wounds over Gitmo. Obama goofed twice, missing his deadline for closing the prison and then making the ruinous choice to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a criminal trial in New York."

"For far too long, public debate about terrorism has been dominated by right-wing and left-wing ideologues. In this corner, the Cheneys and their allies. In that corner, the American Civil Liberties Union, gonzo House Democrats and academics, and their allies. In neither corner, common sense. Typifying the quality of the debate was the ACLU's wildly overstated full-page ad in The New York Times on March 7 darkly suggesting that President Obama would be subverting "our Constitution and due process" if he abandons his administration's politically toxic plan to move the prosecution of five accused 9/11 conspirators from a military commission to a federal civilian court. The centerpiece of the ad was a drawing of Obama's face morphing into that of George W. Bush -- who seems to be more hated in ACLU-land than Osama bin Laden."

"A controversial restructuring of the Vermont court system is on it's way to passage in the House. The House Judiciary committee passed the bill on for further consideration, but it's expected to win final approval before the session is finished. It's been criticized from several quarters, because of cuts in Essex and Grand Isle Counties. But committee chairman Bill Lippert says the intent is not just to save money, but to focus on the courts themselves and cut down on the bureaucracy."

"The electoral landscape shifted last month with a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. No longer are corporations barred from tapping their treasury to directly advocate for and against candidates. The Citizens United v. FEC ruling reversed decades of statutory and case law, clearing the way for potentially large sums of corporate and union money to flow into electioneering in the weeks leading up to an election. It's uncertain what impact this will have upon the statewide special election in May or the regular elections in August and November, but the possibilities are dramatic. We may see a deep-pocketed union spend big dollars to support favored candidates in Arizona's race for governor or U.S. Senate. Or a multinational corporation unleash its resources to tear down political opponents."