California’s Statewide Commission for Impartial Courts held its first public hearing this week and the results were predictable. Legal elites from the Golden State and beyond paraded before the Commission to bemoan the “threats” to judicial independence because of “special interests” and called for action to take “politics” out of the courtroom.

Former California Governor Pete Wilson actually proposed a constitutional amendment that would “urge judicial candidates in California not to answer political questions and that would require all questionnaires to include that advice.” Wilson once called on California voters to dump a sitting state Supreme Court Justice who didn’t agree with his political views on crime. Apparently public officials berating judges doesn’t qualify as “politics,” but the horrors of filling out questionnaires have become so severe that a full-blown amendment to the constitution is required to ensure judicial impartiality.

Instead of berating judges, one august participant, Ohio Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, likes to beat up on voters. Earlier this week, Moyer went so far as to say voters are too unsophisticated to understand the importance of judicial independence. (He ought to know – voters elected him).

The Commission’s Chair, California Supreme Court Justice Ming W. Chin, repeated his assertion that courts are accountable to codes of conduct, the law, and the Constitution,” but evidently not to the people. The Commission’s interim report isn’t due until next month, but when lawyers start talking like this, it’s usually a good sign they want to push voters out of the judicial selection process.