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Friday, February 03, 2006

Courts - Justice O'Connor blasts efforts to change state judge selection process

The Arizona Daily Star reports today, in a story headlined "O'Connor, in Tucson, blasts moves to alter how Ariz. judges are picked":

Recently retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on Thursday harshly criticized moves in the Legislature to alter the way judges are selected in Arizona.

Speaking to a group of women lawyers in Tucson, O'Connor urged an audience of more than 300 to fight "attacks" on an independent judiciary.

"If you don't know about it, find out about it because it's real, it is very serious and, unless all of us take it seriously and do what we can to make the public understand, then an activist judge is a judge who gets up in the morning and goes to work," the 75-year-old Arizona native said.

At least five measures before lawmakers would boost the role of the Legislature in choosing who presides over state courts. * * *

"I'm very concerned, and I hope all of you will be," O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, told the Arizona Women Lawyers Association.

"There are propositions pending in the Arizona Legislature that would effectively put an end to merit selection of judges in Arizona," she said. "It is merit selection of appellate judges that (has) produced the very high quality on the appellate court and the Supreme Court of Arizona that we enjoy today."

In a brief interview after her remarks, O'Connor said adoption of the measures "would be a step backwards." * * *

Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor, who heard O'Connor's remarks at the Doubletree Hotel at Reid Park, noted that O'Connor has a long connection to the judicial selection system she defended. "She was part of the group that really pushed through or got the public to adopt merit selection in Arizona 30-plus years ago," she said.

That is about the same time Indiana's changes, which also have been under legislative attack during the past two sessions, were made.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 3, 2006 02:59 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts