“Busting The Monopoly On Judicial Selection” In Tennessee
June 15, 2009
“The lawyers who have dominated judicial selection are getting put back in their place,” says a Wall Street Journal editorial today about the moves the Tennessee legislature took last week to modify the state’s so-called “merit” system for selecting judges. The new system takes the power of choosing who sits on the judicial nominating commission away from legal special interests and gives it to elected officials. That reform, along with requiring the commission to come out from behind closed doors and meet in public, is “a good first step toward bringing transparency and accountability to those judging the judges.”
As I wrote in my June 2nd post, a critical test was whether the legislature adopted a proposal in the Senate bill which would have allowed the governor to reject two slates of the commission’s nominees and choose any qualified judicial candidate. While this reform was stripped out of the final version, the Journal argues it should be reconsidered when the legislature takes up Round 2 of fixing Tennessee’s broken judicial selection system:
“In its best incarnation, a judicial commission is designed to serve a useful editing function, providing a short list of desirable candidates for the Governor, similar to the way staffers might under a federal system. When it’s dysfunctional, the Governor should be allowed to take the reins.”
This is right, of course, but the real solution can be found in Tennessee’s Constitution, which gives the power to choose judges to the state’s voters. Nevertheless, Tennessee’s reform effort clearly signals a deep dissatisfaction with elitist schemes to elevate special interests above the people when it comes to deciding who will have the honor of serving the public on the bench.
Update: In addition to today’s editorial on Tennessee , the Wall Street Journal editorial page kept the judicial election faith over the weekend by praising the failure of some nasty anti-tort reform legislation in Texas. (A Ten Gallon hat tip to ATRA and TCJL)
Posted by Dan Pero in the categories: Judicial Elections, Tennessee
One Response to ““Busting The Monopoly On Judicial Selection” In Tennessee”
[...] from an even more impenetrable lack of information, and therefore accountability. At the time I praised the Wall Street Journal’s recognition of necessary reforms to Tennessee’s merit [...]