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Sunday, November 02, 2008

Ind. Courts - "Judgment call: 3 justices are on the ballot"

An article today by Jon Murray of the Indianapolis Star:

Hoosier voters will have a chance to throw out a majority of the Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday.

If history is a guide, the justices shouldn't be sweating.

Three of the five Supreme Court justices are up for retention votes, joining one Indiana Court of Appeals judge and the State Tax Court judge.

It's possibly the least-noticed portion of the ballot this year. As long as at least half of the voters mark "yes," all will keep their jobs for additional 10-year terms.

While voters still elect county judges, since 1972, Indiana's appellate judges have been appointed by the governor and then faced periodic retention votes. No judge has lost such a vote.

Up for retention on Election Day are Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard and justices Brent E. Dickson and Theodore R. Boehm; Appeals Court Judge Carr L. Darden; and Tax Court Judge Thomas G. Fisher.

The five Supreme Court justices and 15 appeals court judges face retention in staggered election cycles.

For most voters, the unfamiliar names are unlikely to provoke much consideration in the voting booth.

Even so, said Noblesville attorney Douglas Church, "I think it's important that they vote. . . . We have a highly competent and qualified group of judges up for retention."

If you don't trust Church's assessment, a survey by the Indiana State Bar Association showed wide support for the judges among other lawyers. Approval rates of the five judges ranged from 83 percent to 90 percent among 1,500 attorneys who cast ballots. The survey had an 18 percent response rate.

"These are the people who actually have day-to-day exposure to the opinions (issued by the judges)," said Church, who is the bar association's immediate past president.

In some states -- including all four surrounding Indiana -- appellate judges are elected by voters, often in contested races. They sometimes run TV ads and stump for votes.

Indiana's system is a hybrid meant to reduce politics on the benches of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, which have the power to set precedent and reverse trial court decisions. The Indiana Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort.

Here is the ILB entry reporting the ISBA poll results. And by clicking the link in the upper right-hand corner of the ILB, you can find a list of all ILB entries on this year's retention election, including links to newspaper stories and editorials.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 2, 2008 12:33 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts