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Thursday, January 26, 2006

Ind. Courts - Fort Wayne Journal Gazette editorializes on "Misguided power grab"

"Misguided power grab" is the headline to this strong editorial this morning in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette about the now-withdrawn House Rules Committee effort to rewrite the judicial nominating process for appellate judges. Some quotes:

Selecting judges will never be entirely removed from politics, but Indiana’s system of choosing its state Supreme Court justices and appeals court members is a sound procedure that Hoosiers approved in a referendum. This week, in an act of brute political force that usurped the proper legislative process, the House Rules Committee hastily voted to undo the reasonable, fair system that is in place.

Indiana vastly improved its method of choosing its high court judges in 1970, switching from elections to an appointment system. The current system, which voters approved in a constitutional amendment referendum, calls for a judicial nominating commission to choose finalists. The governor appoints a new Supreme Court justice or appeals court judge from the finalists. Voters choose whether to retain each judge every 10 years.

The bill’s author, Ralph Foley, R-Martinsville, doesn’t like the fact that because Democrats controlled the governor’s office from 1989 through 2004, most of the judges on the high courts are Democrats. Foley, cynically and disingenuously, argues his bill would reduce the politicization when it, in fact, would make the process far more political. * * *

Foley and his fellow Republicans on the rules committee wrongly bypassed the House Judiciary Committee, the proper forum for the bill. And the legal community had very little time to consider the language or prepare for the so-called committee hearing because it was inserted into a blank bill, House Bill 1419.

The committee adopted the measure on a straight party-line vote, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposing. It’s difficult to find a problem the Republicans are seeking to fix. Indiana’s high courts have been remarkably apolitical in their decisions, and certainly more conservative than liberal.

Already in control of the governor’s office and both houses of the legislature, Republicans are now seeking to exert more influence over the third branch, the judiciary.

The bill “flies in the face” of the separation of powers, said Allen Superior Court Judge Stan Levine. He attended the committee meeting this week and spoke on behalf of the Indiana Association of Judges, which opposes the measure. “This is a step backward,” Levine says.

For more, start with this ILB entry from yesterday, Jan. 25th.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 26, 2006 06:18 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts