In an interview with the Nashville City Paper, retiring Tennessee Chief Justice William Barker calls for opening the state’s secret judicial selection commission to the public – one of the key reforms demanded by Governor Phil Bredesen.

Chief Justice Barker also says he favors retaining the current system rather than using democratic elections as called for under Tennessee’s Constitution. No surprise there – another elite lawyer thinks lawyers should be in charge of who sits on the bench. Barker goes even further, coming out against a proposal by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey that would reduce the power of legal special interests on the state’s nominating commission.

Vanderbilt Law Professor Brian Fitzpatrick is quoted in the article, questioning whether retention elections satisfy Tennessee’s Constitutional mandate that state judges be “elected by the qualified voters of the state.” Fitzpatrick notes that referendum votes were unknown to the authors of the constitution. “As a historical matter,” Fitzpatrick says, “retention referenda were originally designed not to facilitate democratic accountability, but, rather, to insulate judges from such accountability.”