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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Courts - "Ever-More-Expensive Court Races Heading Higher "

Three of Indiana's five Supreme Court justices will be on the ballot this fall. But they do not have opponents. Instead, Indiana's justices are appointed by the Governor, from a list of nominees submitted to him by the Judicial Nominating Commission. After an initial two years, and then again every ten years, the names of the justices (should they decide to serve again) appear on the ballot and the voters may vote "Yes" or "No" on the question of whether they should be retained in office. This is the "Missouri Plan" - 16 states use some form of it.

In other states, appellate judges and justices run for office, just an any other candidate. Kathy Barks Hoffman of the AP reported yesterday on the ever-increasing costs of those court races. The report begins:

State courts across the country are caught in a high-stakes, high-priced fight between groups trying to get a handle on large damage awards and others who are concerned consumers and wronged employees are going to be left in the dust.

The struggle is being played out this year in states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, where races for spots on their respective Supreme Courts have drawn millions of dollars in contributions, much of it spent not by the candidates but by business groups, unions and trial lawyers.

"Wisconsin and four other Midwest states ... have become the epicenter of a spreading arms race between corporate interests, trial lawyers, ideological groups and political partisans who are committed to bending judges to their will," said a statement accompanying a report released earlier this year by the Midwest Democracy Network and Justice at Stake Campaign, a Washington-based judicial watchdog group. "It's time for a truce."

Given what's happening as November approaches in many of the 40 contested state Supreme Court races around the country, a truce looks unlikely.

Spending by judicial candidates for the nation's highest state courts races has gone up from $62 million raised between 1993 and 1998 to $165 million between 1999 and 2007, according to the report, raising questions about whether justices can remain impartial when so much money is spent to elect them.

To get around the problem, some states are considering publicly financing judicial races.

See also this ILB entry from Oct. 9, 2006, headed "Big Money and Special Interests Are Warping Judicial Elections."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 26, 2008 09:29 AM
Posted to Courts in general | Indiana Courts