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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Courts - Tennessee's "Missouri plan" for judicial selection expires

Apparently, it was subject to a "Sunset"-type provision.

From a May 10th WSJ article:

Since the 1970s, Tennessee has used a modified Missouri Plan for choosing its judges, known to its proponents as "merit selection." Intended as a way to keep politics out of judicial selection, the method has instead given disproportionate influence to the state trial bar and tilted state courts leftward. The Tennessee plan is set to expire this summer, requiring it to be renewed, reformed, or left to disappear when the legislative session ends this month.

Not if the trial lawyers can help it. Under the current process, nominees to the state appellate court and state supreme court are chosen by a 17-member nominating commission, of which 14 are lawyers and 12 are chosen from among five lawyer groups, including the Tennessee Association for Justice (aka the Tennessee tort lawyer lobby), the Tennessee Bar Association, the District Attorneys General Conference and the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. The commission selects a slate of three judges from which the Governor can pick.

From the May 14th Nashville City Paper, a story by John Rodgers that begins:
One of the signature achievements of former Lt. Gov. John Wilder’s legacy — Tennessee’s method for selecting judges — took another step toward extinction Tuesday as tempers flared and accusations of mistreatment flew in the Senate.

Wilder (D-Mason), a member of the Senate for 44 years and lieutenant governor and speaker for 36 of those years, is retiring this year. The state’s current method for picking judges, called the Tennessee Plan, is one of his top achievements.

The Tennessee Plan though may be retiring on July 1, 2009 after the Senate Government Operations Committee, which has a Republican majority, on Tuesday effectively killed for the year a Wilder-sponsored bill extending the life of the Judicial Selection Commission.

The Judicial Selection Commission recommends potential justices for the Tennessee Supreme Court to the governor to choose among as well as recommending future state appellate and trial court judges. It is a main cog of the Tennessee Plan.

After the legislative action, the move caused one GOP senator to shout at least one expletive at the Senate’s Democratic leader in the hallway.

If the bill doesn’t pass this year, the judicial commission will go into a one-year wind down starting July 1 before expiring next year. * * *

The Senate Republicans, led by current Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville), are holding up the renewal of the selection commission, as well as 53 additional agencies slated to start winding down July 1, as leverage to push reforms to the way the state picks judges. They argue that system is too controlled by special interests.

From an editorial today in the WSJ:
It was sunny in Tennessee last week, when the state's controversial method of picking judges was allowed to expire amid high-stakes legislative wrangling. The change marks the first time a merit selection plan has been ousted in any state that has adopted it.

The plan's demise was finalized last Tuesday after an 11th-hour attempt to save it by state Senator John Wilder. On his last day in office before retirement, Mr. Wilder attempted a rare legislative maneuver to bring it directly to the floor for a vote. No dice.

The so-called merit selection plan will now go into a one-year wind-down, after which Tennessee will revert to its constitutionally mandated method of choosing judges by direct election. That means less influence from the coterie of lawyers groups that had controlled the Judicial Selection Commission and become a thorn in the side of even Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen, who balked at their manipulation of his appointments. * * *

The Tennessee plan was devised to reduce the role of politics in judicial selection. But as the political drama surrounding it amply demonstrated, the reality has been anything but nonpartisan. Tennessee now has a chance to restore transparency and accountability to judicial nominations – and to show other states the way.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 27, 2008 08:04 AM
Posted to Courts in general