Tennessee has become the second state, after New Hampshire, where lawmakers are considering proposals to prohibit judicial review of legislation.
Justice at Stake’s praise for strengthened judicial recusal rules adopted by the Tennessee Supreme Court was spotlighted in a Legal Newsline article this week. Read more on Gavel Grab.
Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts called for swift action in light of a published report that Justice Joan Orie Melvin of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has gotten formal notice that she is a target of a grand jury in Allegheny County. See Gavel Grab for details.
Justice at Stake and the Brennan Center for Justice have praised the Tennessee Supreme Court’s decision to strengthen that state’s judicial recusal rules. Read Gavel Grab for more details.
A group of members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives is proposing a constitutional amendment to prohibit judicial review of legislation, the blog Gavel to Gavel has reported. Bill CACR 28 would give the power of judicial review to the legislature. Read details in Gavel Grab.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has enacted a new recusal policy that bars elected judges from hearing cases whenever a litigant, or their lawyer or law firm, “has made contributions or given such support to the judge’s campaign that the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” See Gavel Grab for details.
2011 saw the introduction of 14 bills in 7 states to impeach judges. In all but two cases, impeachment was sought because members of the legislature disapproved of a specific decision. None of the attempts were successful. Read Gavel Grab for details.
Justice Not Politics has launched Caucus for Justice, an effort which empowers supporters of fair and impartial courts – from both parties – to attend these important local meetings and introduce the Fair Courts Platform Plank. Justice Not Politics has become the leader in protecting Iowa's fair courts. See Gavel Grab for more.
There’s a money paradox involving state courts: their budgets are getting slashed nationwide, yet big-money spending on contested state supreme court elections has risen sharply. "The money's in the wrong place," said Rebecca Love Kourlis, a former Colorado Supreme Court justice and now executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. See details in Gavel Grab.
According to a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article, The name of Justice Joan Orie Melvin of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court figures prominently in a grand jury report that is part of an ongoing corruption probe. Read more on Gavel Grab.
The California Judicial Council, which oversees state courts, voted to oppose a bill in the legislature that would give local trial courts a larger share of the overall state court budget. Critics, including the chief lobbyist for the Administrative Office of the Courts, argued the bill interferes with the way the judicial branch governs itself. Read details in Gavel Grab.
A flood of special interest cash in judicial elections, legislative attacks by anti-court partisans and budget shortfalls are putting enormous pressure on impartial state courts, Justice at Stake and a JAS partner write. Read Gavel Grab for more.
A national Justice Index would not only measure how the justice system performs in states around the country, but it would bolster court officials when they seek funding in hard financial times, advocates for such an Index say. Read details on Gavel Grab.
An Illinois watchdog group is urging a campaign finance task force to take a serious look at public financing of judicial elections. A Jacksonville Journal-Courier article quoted Brian Gladstein, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, as saying that before Illinois contemplates setting up a fund for public financing of candidates for state elective office, it could implement public financing in judicial elections. ICPR is a JAS partner group. Read details in Gavel Grab.
The Tennessee Supreme Court held a four-hour hearing on revised ethics rules for state judges, including stricter recusal rules, and it reached no immediate conclusion. Read details in Gavel Grab.
The news is replete with stories of local courts closing, limiting services, and even delaying or halting jury trials. In order to give a broader view of the situation, the National Center for State Courts has just released a national survey of the impact of budget cuts to the state judiciaries. The NCSC survey, conducted from July to October, polled state courts about what measures have been taken to respond to budget reductions. Read details in Gavel Grab.
A Harrisburg, Pa. newspaper is calling for the state’s judicial system to provide “much more clarity” about judicial conflicts of interest and recusal, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky case and a judge’s “appearance of bias.” Read details in Gavel Grab.
The Hispanic National Bar Association issued a statement of concern over a news report that numerous women and minorities were among President Obama’s judicial prospects receiving a “not qualified” rating from an ABA screening panel. See Gavel Grab for details.
Court funding failures in states nationwide are so severe that they “are resulting in the failure to deliver basic justice,” David Boies, co-head of an ABA task force on court funding issues, warned in a New York Times article. Read details in Gavel Grab.
For any Gavel Grab readers who are attorneys needing CLE credits before the end of the year, a Justice at Stake partner, the American Judicature Society, will be hosting four webinars on judicial ethics beginning this (Monday) afternoon. For a full listing, see Gavel Grab.
All Common Court Pleas judges in Centre County, Pa., where Penn State is located, have recused themselves from proceedings involving Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach accused in the child sex-abuse scandal. Read details in Gavel Grab.
As voters cast ballots in Philadelphia today for local judges, the reform group Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts warned that in judicial elections, a candidate’s qualifications often are trumped by other issues. Read more in Gavel Grab.
Justice at Stake and a partner group, the Brennan Center for Justice, have strongly urged the Tennessee Supreme Court to adopt new judicial recusal rules proposed by the Tennessee Bar Association. Read details in Gavel Grab.
State Rep. Bryan Cutler, a Republican, says a major reason he favors legislation to switch to merit selection of judges in Pennsylvania is the importance of choosing qualified jurists. Read more in Gavel Grab.
A “cascade of cash” in Pennsylvania’s 2009 state Supreme Court election gives voters more reason to “subscribe to the well-documented perception that justice is for sale,” cautions a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial. It features data from a Justice at Stake report. Read details in Gavel Grab.
