West Virginia Legislator Gets It Half Right
September 22, 2008
West Virginia Democratic State Senator Jeff Kessler has got “merit” selection all figured out:
I’m inclined to believe that election is the best way. Judicial selection by (merit) committee is still politics – just a narrower group.
But Sen. Kessler, who chairs the state legislature’s Senate Judiciary Committee, is pushing for public financing of judicial races to end the “perception that [judges] are beholden to donors.”
A couple of points: First, public financing, like “merit” selection, is just another way to keep the people at arm’s length from the judicial selection process because it limits their ability to express their democratic preferences. Second, the “perception” about being “beholden to donors” is true for all public servants – so why is it OK for people to assume their congressmen, governors and state senators are “beholden”…but not judges? Third, the best way to end this “perception” that judges can’t be impartial is for judges to stop acting like politicians who routinely overturn elected legislatures to impose their own social, economic or political views and go back to their real job of interpreting the law.