“They Don’t Think We’re Smart Enough To Elect Our Judges”
October 29, 2008
Another Kansas City Star article updates the campaign over the ballot initiative in bellwether Johnson County to scrap “merit” selection and restore democratic judicial elections. As it stands today, a 14-member commission dominated by lawyers screens applicants and sends a list of three hand-picked nominees to the governor, who is required by law to select one of the commission’s choices. While initial meetings with judicial candidates are open to the public, voters have no opportunity to question nominees or offer any input into the process.
Election opponents believe keeping judges at arm’s length from the people they serve is a good idea. Voters can learn everything they need to know “about judges’ qualifications and work on the bench through evaluations released by the Kansas Commission on Judicial Performance.” So one committee controlled by a special interest group (lawyers) gets to pick judges and another committee controlled by the same special interest group (lawyers) gets to tell voters what to think about judges.
“Merit” selection supporters say this system installs judges with “merit” on the bench – but what they really mean is that only certain people (like lawyers) have enough “merit” to make the decision over who controls one-third of our government. Charlene Bredemeier, a supporter of judicial elections, sums up this attitude pretty accurately:
“They [merit selection proponents] don’t think we’re smart enough to elect our judges.”