Tennessee’s “current judicial selection process is a perfect storm of special interest control, closed government and lack of accountability,” says Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey in a well-argued oped in the Tri-City News (TN). Ramsey clearly spells out the problems with judicial selection Star Chambers – not just in Tennessee, but in all states that […]

Bill Hobbs has a very good historical overview of the roots of merit selection in TN. In providing the overview, Hobbs asks a pointed question about the state’s judicial selection system:
If the current system, enacted by the legislature statutorily after voters rejected it as a constitutional amendment, is constitutional, then why was a constitutional […]

Business TN Magazine has published a fascinating back-and-forth between Vanderbilt Law Professor Brian Fitzpatrick, who recently authored a very important report on merit selection in Tennessee, and C. Barry Ward, an attorney who is a member of Tennessee’s judicial nominating commission. Among other things, the interview exposes the elitist rationale behind “merit selection.”
I believe […]

Post Politics, the Nashville Post’s blog, reports that TN Governor Phil Bredesen – who fought valiantly to bring the state’s judicial selection commission out from behind closed doors, only to be rebuffed by the legislature – has come out against restoring the right of Tennessee voters to decide who sits on the bench.
In the past, […]

The people of Tennessee got a step closer to reclaiming their constitutional right to vote for state judges when the legislature adjourned last week without reauthorizing the judicial selection commission. But an article in the Memphis Daily News makes it clear the battle is not over.
While Tennessee’s judicial selection commission has entered a one […]

Nice editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal on the welcome demise of Tennessee’s judicial selection Star Chamber.
Money quote:
“The Tennessee plan was devised to reduce the role of politics in judicial selection. But as the political drama surrounding it amply demonstrated, the reality has been anything but nonpartisan. Tennessee now has a chance to restore transparency […]

Despite a full-court press from the powerful trial lawyers’ lobby, the Tennessee legislature last night decided not to reauthorize the state’s judicial selection commission – where lawyers meet in secret to choose judges.  Blogger Ned Williams of Wisdom is Vindicated has the story.
This is a huge defeat for the trial bar, which fought ferociously […]

Another law professor has called on the Tennessee legislature to dump the state’s “unconstitutional” judicial selection commission. In today’s Nashville City Paper, David Danner – an adjunct professor of business law at Tennessee State University – writes that Tennessee’s judicial selection commission has turned the state constitution “upside down.”
Judges in Tennessee are chosen
… by […]

Blogger Bill Hobbs has an important post today that helps expose the ethical conflicts behind the lobbying by Tennessee’s trial lawyers to save the state’s judicial selection star chamber.
Betty Anderson, wife of House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, has been trolling the state’s Capitol on behalf of the Tennessee Bar Association, but never registered as a lobbyist.

Ned Williams over at Wisdom is Vindicated has a post today on the latest fallout from Tennessee’s judicial selection debate.