Chief Justice Turns Into Chief Lobbyist In Tennessee
April 17, 2009
Tennessee Chief Justice Janice Holder waded into the debate over Tennessee’s soon to expire “merit” selection system, mocking the idea that she or her colleagues on the Supreme Court should be accountable to the people through democratic elections as “ridiculous.” With the Chief Justice now acting as the Chief Lobbyist against the Tennessee Constitution’s provision that judges “shall be elected by the qualified voters,” at least we can dispense with the pretense that judges chosen by secret commission can be counted on to stay serene and aloof from politics.
Chief Justice Holder opened her campaign with a silly analogy comparing judges to basketball referees. As reported by Jackson Baker at the Politics Beat Blog, Holder presented “a facetious proposal to elect officials taking part in NCAA basketball tournaments, allowing them to raise money, use attack ads against their election opponents and ‘show bits and pieces of video of some of these games where there were bad calls.”
Let’s think about that for a minute.
NCAA basketball referees are accountable for their “bad calls” and can be replaced if their performance slips; Tennessee’s judges are accountable to no one and it’s almost impossible to replace one. When an NCAA referee makes the wrong decision, it only impacts one game; when a Tennessee judge makes the wrong decision, companies can be wiped out, jobs can be lost, property seized, families undermined, schools restructured. NCAA referees can’t make up new rules in the middle of the game; judges can (and do) make up new rules whenever they want. NCAA referees are private citizens; Tennessee judges are public servants.
But Chief Justice Holder’s speech wasn’t just silly, it may have been unethical, according to Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey:
“I don’t know exactly how far that goes and still be ethical, to be honest, for them to be out here speaking to Rotary Clubs and Kiwanis clubs lobbying for a bill. That seems to be against their code of ethics.”
Oh, and one more thing: Tennessee’s Constitution specifically provides that judges “shall be elected by the qualified voters of the state.” As far as I know, there’s nothing in Tennessee’s Constitution about NCAA basketball referees.
HT: Ned Williams