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Saturday, September 06, 2008

Ind. Courts - Rep. Foley again urges changes in Judicial Nominating Commission

In this ILB entry from August 29th I promised to provide details on three items discussed at the Aug. 28th meeting of the Commission on Courts. (1) the Courts' new judicial retention website is discussed here, and (2) judicial mandates are detailed in ILB entries here and here. The third item promised:

(3) Representative Ralph M. Foley's 2006 effort, HB 1419, to change the Judicial Nominating Commission and the way appellate judges are retained. Rep. Foley is urging the consideration of the proposal again in the 2009 session. Looking back to 2006, I see I wrote quite a bit about the proposal at the time and will bring you up to date.
Here, from my notes of the Aug. 28th meeting:
Rep. Ralph Foley appeared before the Commission on Courts to urge reconsideration of his 2006 proposal that the recommendations of the Judicial Nominating Commission appear on the ballot. The ballot would indicate that a judge up for retention had been approved or rejected for retention by the Nominating Commission.

Rep. Foley said that in 1970, the partisan election of judges was changed, but not all politics was. He said he has seen campaign literature from those seeking to be elected to the Judicial Nominating Commission. He urged changes in the way members are selected to the Nominating Commission. Rep. Foley said these changes could be made by statute and would not require a constitutional amendment. He complained of lack of transparency.

Here are the recently available notes from the LSA minutes of the meeting:
The next person to testify was Rep. Ralph Foley. Rep. Foley stated he was in favor of an independent, impartial, and fair judiciary and also in ways in which the public could be informed about retention elections.

Rep. Foley said Sen. R. Michael Young had introduced Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 1 in 2005 to amend the Indiana Constitution to, among other things, require the Governor to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court or the Court from nominees recommended by a commission on judicial nominations and qualifications, subject to confirmation by the Indiana Senate. He said SJR 1-2005 also specified a justice's or judge's retention in office would have to be confirmed by the Senate.

Rep. Foley continued by stating SJR 1-2005 did not pass. He said in 2006 he introduced House Bill (HB) 1419 which would have required attorney commissioners to the Judicial Nominating Commission to be nominated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. He said it also would have required any recommendation of the Judicial Nominating Commission concerning the retention or rejection of a justice or judge at a retention election to be placed on the ballot.

Rep. Foley said he "dropped" HB 1419-2006 when it did not receive the bipartisan support he wanted. Rep. Foley said the Commission may want to examine the statute that creates the current Judicial Nominating Commission to try and find ways to make it more impartial and independent. Rep. Foley also said that while the retention election website was an "excellent" idea, he felt the Commission may also want to help the public make more informed decisions by having the Judicial Nominating Commission make a recommendation concerning the retention or rejection of a justice or judge and requiring the placement of that recommendation on the ballot.

As noted above, it turns out I wrote quite a lot about HB 1419 in 2006, including a Res Gestae article. Taken together, they make interesting reading:

Courts - Bill to change appeals judge selection process passes out of House committee (1/24/06)

Ind. Courts - HB 1419, to change appeals court selection process, is dead [Updated] (1/25/06)

Ind. Courts - Fort Wayne Journal Gazette editorializes on "Misguided power grab" (1/26/06)

Ind. Courts - More on: HB 1419, to change the appeals court selection process (1/26/06)

Ind. Courts - March Res Gestae article on the recent effort to change the judicial nominating process (3/9/06). A quote from the article:

The Indiana House rules committee, in late January, voted to amend a “vehicle bill” – a bill with no content introduced as a “place saver” – by adopting a committee report inserting language changing the way Indiana appellate judges and justices are selected and retained. The changes were to take effect immediately upon passage. * * *

The discussion that follows will examine: (1) the content and impact of the proposed statutory amendment; (2) previous changes to the membership of the nominating commission; and (3) legal issues posed by the changes proposed in HB 1419. * * *

The proposal would have: (1) abruptly terminated the current terms of both the attorney and citizen members of the Judicial Nominating Commission: (2) changed the method of selection of the attorney members and provided for election of new attorney members, to take office July 1st; (3) required the Governor to fill the three now vacant citizen positions by the end of May; and (4) required that the reconstituted commission evaluate the judges and justices up for retention, beginning with the November 2006 election, and recommend on the ballot whether each appellate judge and justice up for retention should stay or go.

See particularly pp. 7 and 8 of the article, discussing issues re the legality of the proposed ballot instruction.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 6, 2008 07:25 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts