A Washington Post article spotlighted surging spending by outside special interest groups in judicial elections nationwide, and it quoted Justice at Stake and JAS partner groups. For details see Gavel Grab.
"Allowing would-be judges to beg for cash and to make campaign promises about how they will decide cases tarnishes an institution that must be above reproach."
Washington Post editorial
Washington Post editorial
Partner News
In the wake of controversy about a Wisconsin judge’s signing a petition urging recall of Gov. Scott Walker, a Gannett Wisconsin media analysis has found that 29 circuit judges were among the 930,000 people who signed petitions urging the same recall. The number of judges signing the petitions represented 12 percent of about 250 county-level judges.
Too many voters go into the voting booth effectively wearing blindfolds, but when it comes to judicial elections, a Chicago public interest justice center says it is removing those blindfolds. Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice is encouraging Cook County, Ill. voters to visit a nonpartisan voter education website called VoteForJudges.org to learn about judicial candidates before voting in the 2012 primary election on Tuesday, March 20.
Public trust in fair and impartial courts is eroded when judicial candidates are forced to raise big money from special interests who want to influence their decisions, a New York Times editorial warned.
Candidates for the Illinois Supreme Court who were surveyed by a campaign reform group desire guidelines for when a justice should recuse himself or herself in cases involving judicial campaign contributors.
Responses to the survey by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform were the topic of a news report by the Illinois Radio Network.
A new study released by the American Judicature Society suggests that judicial nominating commissions, a key component of merit selection systems, are working well. See Gavel Grab for details.
A new site devoted to procedural fairness in the courts was recently launched by Judge Kevin Burke, District Judge in the Hennepin County (Minn.) District Court; Judge Steve Leben, Judge, Kansas Court of Appeals; the National Center for State Courts (with researcher David Rottman as its lead blogging participant); and Professor Tom Tyler, of Yale Law School.
Tennessee has become the second state, after New Hampshire, where lawmakers are considering proposals to prohibit judicial review of legislation.
A bill introduced by Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Mae Beavers, a Republican, would strip Tennessee courts of the right to review the constitutionality of a law passed by the legislature, according to a KnoxNews.com column. Read more on Gavel Grab.
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.
