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Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Ind. Courts - HB 1419, to change appeals court selection process, is dead [Updated]

The minority committee report on HB 1419 was filed on Monday, shortly after the meeting of the House Rules Committee which passed out the rewritten bill by a vote of 6-4. See roll call. But the majority committee report, with the new guts of the bill, was never filed. Today I began efforts, to no avail, to find out why.

The Indianapolis Star's Mary Beth Schneider did find out why, and has a just-posted story on the Star website. Some quotes from the story:

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said he quashed the proposal. Democrats had called the legislation an attempt by Republicans, who already control the executive and legislative branches, to seize control of the judicial branch as well.

"After reviewing the testimony given in the committee room and discussing it with members that were present, I felt that this was an issue that we did not need to spend a lot of time on during the rest of the session. It's very clear that while many believe changes to the judicial nominating commission do need to occur, they need to be well thought out and perhaps be examined in an atmosphere that's a little more thoughtful and not quite so quick," Bosma said today.

Under the proposal, made by Rep. Ralph Foley, R-Martinsville, would have made Indiana the first state in the nation to place on the ballot a statement advising voters whether to retain or reject supreme and appellate court judges.

The proposal, inserted into House Bill 1419, was approved on a party-line vote Monday evening in the House Rules Committee. * * *

The bill also would have fired the current six members of the commission, and replaced them with three members appointed by Gov. Mitch Daniels and three chosen by attorneys from a list of six picked by the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore -- currently all Republicans.

For background, see yesterday's ILB entry here.

[Updated 1/26/06] Here is today's Star's slightly updated version of the story.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 25, 2006 04:18 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts | Indiana Law