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Judging, politics, sentencing and elections

By Douglas A. Berman

Adam Liptak has this effective piece in today's New York Times headlined "Rendering Justice, With One Eye on Re-Election."  Here are some highlights that should especially interest sentencing fans: The question of how best to select judges has baffled lawyers and political scientists for centuries, but in the United States most states have made their choice in favor of popular election.  The tradition goes back to Jacksonian populism, and supporters say it has the advantage of making judges accountable to the will of the people.  A judge who makes a series of unpopular decisions can be challenged in an election and removed from the bench. ?If you want judges to be responsive to public opinion, then having elected judges is the way to do that,? said Sean Parnell, the president of the Center for Competitive Politics, an advocacy group that opposes most campaign finance regulation...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 25, 2008 (boomark / email).