No Merit In Ohio
November 23, 2009
According to the Columbus Dispatch, a small group of legal elites – including the Chief Justice of Ohio’s Supreme Court and the president of the Ohio Bar – got together last week to discuss the best way to select judges in Ohio. Guess what? They think legal elites should have more control – people like themselves, in fact.
When asked, 78 percent said they would support a ballot provision abolishing democratic judicial elections and replacing them with “merit” selection – where elites pick judges and voters are shut out of the process. Sounds impressive – until you hear there were only about 50 people in the room.
Nevertheless, this pseudo-scientific “poll” perfectly captures the condescending mindset behind the “merit” selection crowd. Fifty elites gather at a swanky hotel and inform roughly 8.2 million Ohio voters that their participation in deciding who will control one-third of their state government is no longer needed.