“The Supremes Trample On State Courts”
June 9, 2009
The Wall Street Journal editorial page hits it out of the park with a piece on yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to make federal courts the arbiter of recusal standards and decisions by state judges. Money graph:
“Justice Kennedy tries to limit any judicial chaos by insisting that not every campaign contribution would demand recusal, and that this is an ‘exceptional case.’ But the support for this position by such opponents of judicial elections as the Brennan Center for Justice and the George Soros-funded Justice at Stake gives away the game.
“These groups hope to brand all elections with the taint of inevitable bias, and five Justices have now gone a long way toward validating that claim. One result will be that far more decisions by elected judges will be challenged for bias, further tying up the courts and giving average citizens the impression that all judges can be bought. The ultimate goal of these groups is to have all judges selected by a club of lawyers and insiders that makes judges less accountable to average citizens.”