Personal Injury Law

Maryland Election: Court of Special Appeals Judges

One thing I really don't do is rubberneck traffic accidents. When I am king, rubbernecking will be a felony.

Except for traffic accidents, I am a rubbernecker. My worst rubbernecking comes in comment sections of articles and blog posts. I found this one this morning talking about the election of Maryland Court of Special Appeals judges. Really, I would like to get all of the time back in my life that I have spent reading this kinda garbage. It reminds me of what that guy said when looking at The Kramer: "He is a loathsome, offensive brute... yet I can't look away." I need to do a better job of looking away. (Memo to my 2011 New Year's resolutions file.)

In an "election" for the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, Marylanders are given an up/down vote on judges. Think Soviet Union 1958 (hey, look, Khrushchev won again - good for him). But having these judges on the ballot is a waste of time. All of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals judges should be retained because none of them have been accused of any ethical violations. We should just skip the show altogether and give these judges a single term or life tenure (of course, Maryland defines life as age 70 but that is a whole other story). Practically, this is what we are doing anyway.

Some people are going to vote against the Maryland Court of Special Appeals judges. This is fine. Voters are playing within the system. But I would like to poll the voters who vote against the CSA judges and ask them, "What opinion did the judge write that made you vote no?" I will bet you that less than 1% of people voting "no" can answer.

The big race in my jurisdiction is Kratovil-Harris. I'm not sure who is going to win and I'm worried my choice is going to lose. Still, I feel like the electorate will have spoken. I think if Kratovil loses, it will be a referendum vote on President Obama's first two years more than a vote for Harris. I think this is completely unfair but I don't think it is unreasonable (if that makes sense). But in all of these judicial elections in Maryland (certainly Ronald Jarashow/Laura Kiessling/Alison Asti is the closest example to home), I don't think voters are really in a position to make reasonable choices.

Full post as published by Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog on November 02, 2010 (boomark / email).