So Much For Removing Politics From Judicial Selection
December 24, 2008
Proponents of “merit” selection – where a committee dominated by lawyers meets in secret to pick judges – always claim this scheme will remove filthy “politics” from the judicial selection process. Considering this system strips voters of their fundamental constitutional right to vote for their public servants on the bench, it’s a pretty thin argument – even if it were true.
But it’s not.
I’ve written before that “merit” selection just moves politics into the smoke-filled room, but it appears I’m wrong. In Florida, Governor Charlie Crist and the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission are engaged in a full-scale and very public political battle over a Supreme Court vacancy, with commissioners and members of the governor’s staff publicly trading barbs and special interest groups pondering whether the “fix” is in for the seat. Editorials in major Florida newspapers blare that “the commission’s credibility is gone” and fret that the whole matter represents “the worst kind of judicial politics.”
You can read my previous posts for background here, but the upshot is that the allegedly non-partisan commission tried to force a slate of nominees on Gov. Crist that he felt lacked diversity. The commission went back behind closed doors and, after a heated 5-4 vote, sent the governor a new list that included a Hispanic nominee, U.S. Navy General Counsel Frank Jimenez.
The vote didn’t sit well with commissioner Arturo Alvarez, who publicly trashed the decision to add Mr. Jimenez, saying the commission created the “perception that our choice are influenced by the governor…” (Heaven forbid that the legal poohbahs on the unelected commission should actually be accountable to someone.) The Palm Beach Post wants Mr. Jimenez’s selection (if it happens) to “be challenged in court as illegal” and, for good measure, says nearly half the commission should resign.
And this is the system that’s supposed to take “politics” out of judicial selection?
Posted by Dan Pero in the categories: Florida, Judicial Elections
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[...] off another round of very public political blood-letting. One commissioner (Arturo Alvarez) trashed his fellow commissioners for allowing a second vote to add more candidates. The St. Petersburg [...]