Litigation

O?Connor Backs Merit Selection in MD

By Peter Hardin

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, on the road to push for an end to state judicial elections, endorsed in Maryland a bill to replace election of circuit judges with their appointment, followed by retention elections.

“The independence of the judiciary is something that we all ought to care about,” Justice O’Connor said in Annapolis, according to a Baltimore Sun article.  “And we will protect it most by having a merit system.” She voiced support for a bill proposed by Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler.

Justice O’Connor said the Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance ruling, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and its ruling last year on a judge’s getting multimillion dollar campaign support from a litigant, Caperton v. Massey,  “ought to be a concern to every state that still elects judges.”

She said partisan judicial elections and the fundraising that goes with them harm the ability of judges to be impartial, an Associated Press article reported.

“I think we’ve had enough experience to know that it doesn’t work today and it particularly doesn’t work well today in light of decisions that the U.S. Supreme Court has handed down just recently,” Justice O’Connor said.

Learn more from Gavel Grab about Justice O’Connor’s campaign to eliminate judicial elections, or find out more about the Maryland bill. You can learn more about appointment/retention systems from Justice at Stake’s issues page about them.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 04, 2010 (boomark / email).