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Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Ind. Courts - IndyStar editorial against Marion County trial judge selection system
And of course the Star's editorial writers are far from the first to criticize the Marion County system. Most recently, Justice Ted Boehm, in his Sept. 30 , 2010 retirement speech, said:
[I]n some parts of the state we have systems of judicial selection that work well, but in Marion county, for example, we have a scheme that purports to place the selection in the hands of the voters, but in practical effect leaves it under the control of a few party officials. There are several pernicious results, not the least of which is the judges become a vehicle for raising funds for political parties. Despite widespread derision, even ridicule of this system, few in government have the will to challenge it.The first half of today's Star editorial points out Marion County traffic court judge Bill Young's faults, ending with:
His abuse of power has been so blatant that the General Assembly this year even passed a law specifically aimed at Young's practice of imposing heavy fines on drivers who came to court to fight traffic tickets.The editorial continues:
Yet, the bigger outrage isn't Young's misbehavior. It's an electoral process that protects judges such as Young from voters' scrutiny.Marion County has a bizarre system in which judicial candidates who are slated by the major political parties are all but assured victory in the general election. The system essentially guarantees that party insiders, not voters, get to select who serves on the bench in Marion County.
Defenders of the system insist that it provides the best of the alternatives: Candidates are screened by the parties before they reach the ballot, but voters get the final say.
Yet, officials such as Young and Grant Hawkins, a Marion County Superior Court judge who was suspended last year for mishandling a rape case, are largely shielded from public accountability for their actions.
As it stands, Young may well have deserved a stiffer penalty for what Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis Professor Joel Schumm described as "repeated and flagrant'' misconduct. For sure, the public deserves a system that takes power out of the hands of party insiders and puts it with the voters.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 1, 2010 10:53 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts