A proposed amendment to strip Minnesota citizens of their constitutional right to vote for state judges is “dead” – at least for now – according to MinnPost.com.

The Minnesota constitution declares that state judges “shall be elected by the voters.” Yet some of those occupying Minnesota’s legal establishment dislike the inconvenient fact that judges have to win the approval of the voters.

So they’ve been pushing a constitutional amendment that would replace “democracy” (i.e. the will of the voters) with a “merit selection” plan. Under this scheme:

” … all judges would be appointed their first term by the governor who would pick from a list prepared by a special panel of lawyers and non-lawyers. During their terms, they would be screened by a citizen-lawyer committee which could recommend to voters the retention of the judges. Those judges would have no opponents. Voters would give a thumbs up or down on retention.” (emphasis added)

There’s a theory at work here that’s unspoken, but just beneath the surface: Proponents of merit selection think ordinary people aren’t qualified to pass judgment on judges. Thankfully, the authors of Minnesota’s constitution and Governor Tim Pawlenty believe otherwise.