Litigation

Bar Group Head Urges NC Merit Selection

By Peter Hardin

North Carolina’s public-financing plan for appellate judges doesn’t go far enough to ensure judicial independence, the president of the N.C. Bar Association argues in a commentary urging adoption of merit selection.

John R. Wester says in the Charlotte Observer commentary that the public funding program does not apply to elections for District and Superior Court, “where the vast majority of our judges serve and where our citizens most frequently appear.”

And to qualify for any public dollars, candidates for North Carolina’s state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals are required to raise about $40,000 from a pool of voters, Wester notes.

“As long as we call upon our judicial candidates to raise funds, advertise and make campaign promises, we forfeit, at a minimum, the appearance of judicial independence,” Wester asserts.

He points to concerns voiced in North Carolina earlier by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor about the threat to judicial independence posed by a tide of campaign money flowing into judicial elections.

Those concerns are made more pressing by two Supreme Court decisions in the past year, Wester warns:  Caperton v. Massey (involving special-interest political spending to elect a judge) and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (involving corporate political spending).

To learn more about appointment and retention systems, check out Justice at Stake’s issues page on the topic.

Full post as published by The Gavel on April 19, 2010 (boomark / email).