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Sunday, October 23, 2005

Courts - Kansas looks at making appellate judicial offices elective

A story Saturday in the Lawrence Kansas Journal-World looks at the judicial selection question. [Thanks to How Appealing for the link.] Some quotes from the story:

Topeka — A legislative committee Friday decided to make no recommendation on the hot-button issue of whether to change the way Kansas Supreme Court justices are selected.

The controversy, however, is bound to be debated during the 2006 legislative session that starts in January.

Several lawmakers, unhappy with recent court decisions in overturning the death penalty and ordering more school funding, have sought to make Supreme Court justices run in contested elections or be subject to state Senate confirmation.

Either proposed change would require a two-thirds vote in the Legislature and a statewide vote to amend the state Constitution.

Currently, a nominating commission screens judicial applicants and presents a list of three candidates to the governor, who then makes an appointment from that list. Justices then run for retention election every six years.

Retired Supreme Court justices, including Fred Six, of Lawrence, legal associations and voter groups urged lawmakers to keep the system as it is, saying it allowed the judiciary to stay independent by keeping politics and special interest campaign money out of the selection process. * * *

“Judges cannot protect those who are minorities or unpopular if the judges are beholden to the political pressures of the majority, or to the necessity to raise campaign money from the rich and powerful,” said Richard Hayse, president of the Kansas Bar Assn.

But several lawmakers said the retention election process was a sham because it is nearly impossible for citizens to get information about a judge that is on the ballot to be either retained or taken off the bench. “Trying to find out something about a judge is like trying to find a tooth in a hen’s mouth,” said Sen. Kay O’Conner, R-Olathe.

[Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence] and other supporters of the current system agreed that is a problem and a process of providing evaluation of judges is needed.

SJR 1, introduced in the Indiana General Assembly that ended this spring, proposed similar changes in the selection of appellate judges in Indiana, and is discussed in my column in the October issue of Res Gestae, the journal of the Indiana State Bar Association. For more information, and to access the article, see this ILB entry from earlier this week.

See also this ILB entry from 3/27/05, titled "Judges on the hot seat", discussing both the Kansas and Indiana selection processes, as well as those of other states.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 23, 2005 08:08 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts