Litigation

IL, IA Retention Elections Hard-Fought to End

By Peter Hardin

In Illinois, a state Supreme Court justice facing a tough and big-spending retention (up-or-down) election says he worries about the future of our courts.

In Iowa, a new poll showed that voters are narrowly divided over ousting three justices in retention elections; the three were part of a unanimous court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the state.

Once-sedate retention elections have turned into some of the most contentious and high-spending judicial battles of 2010, as the two Midwestern battlegrounds show.

Illinois Justice Thomas Kilbride said the race he is running for reelection, in the face of fierce special interest opposition, is about bigger issues than his career, a NPR broadcast reported (photo at left is also courtesy of NPR). Justice Kilbride told an interviewer:

“If we are going to allow the courts to be politicized to this degree, where there’s more and more big-time money coming in, it’s going to ruin the court system and we might as well shut down the third branch….I mean that seriously.”

Almost $3 million has been pumped into the contest, ranking it the second-highest-grossing judicial retention campaign in history. Justice Kilbride voted with a court majority against limits on medical malpractice claims, and a number of business interests have mounted a staunch opposition drive.

“We’ve got this notion embedded in our history that when judges sit on a case they’re supposed to … consider the law and not be swayed by campaign contributions or whom they know,” said Cynthia Canary of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a Justice at Stake partner.

“But when you’re talking about this kind of money, even a justice who is doing their absolute best to apply that kind of standard and to be neutral, the problem is: Does the public buy it?” Canary belongs to the JAS board of directors.

In Iowa, where opposing sides kicked off statewide tours Monday, 36 percent of voters said they want to keep the three targeted justices, and 35 percent plan to vote to remove them, according to a survey by Shaw & Company Research, the Des Moines Register reported.

So far the effort to dump the three justices  has spent more than $650,000, and those fighting to keep them have spent $227,000, much of it on TV ads, according to an Associated Press article.

In Colorado,  critics are trying to remove three justices in retention elections. Election Day will pose a test for what Charles Hall of the Justice at Stake Campaign described as a national model for systems that try to take politics out of the equation, a separate Associated Press article reported.

To see TV ads and learn more about these and other elections this year, check out JAS’ Judicial Elections 2010 page.

Full post as published by The Gavel on October 26, 2010 (boomark / email).