Litigation

Editorial Blasts ?Gong Show? at MI High Court

Posted on September 08, 2010
An editorial in the Toledo Blade outright ridicules the Michigan Supreme Court for its conduct, and asks whether the time is right to seek reforms in the way voters elect their high court justices. The editorial lays partial blame on “the bizarre system by which Michigan justices are nominated by the two major political parties...

O?Connor Defends IA Merit Selection

Posted on September 08, 2010
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor today commended Iowa’s merit-based selection method for selecting judges as “an excellent system” that ensures fair and impartial courts. ?Don?t throw out the system just because it?s under stress,? Justice O?Connor told a forum sponsored by the Iowa State Bar Association, according to a Des Moines Register article...

Obama: Fewest Judicial Confirmations Since Nixon

Posted on September 08, 2010
When the Senate is on recess and there’s no real news about the large backlog of federal judicial nominations, you can always dig for historical comparisons. The Associated Press did exactly that in an article reporting that President Obama has placed fewer men and women on the federal bench than any president since Richard Nixon, [...

Solid Bipartisan Majorities Back Judicial Election Reforms

Posted on September 08, 2010
A new national poll shows that large bipartisan majorities of Americans believe elected judges deliver favored treatment to their campaign backers, and similar majorities support reforms to curb the perception that justice is for sale. “The American mainstream wants courts to be off-limits to special-interest money and partisan politics,” said Bert Brandenburg, executive director of [...

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Indy Lawyer PAC to Boost Impartial Justice?

Posted on September 07, 2010
Have the folks in Indianapolis, Indiana come up with a new way for lawyers to give to judicial campaigns–while removing a possible appearance of impropriety from doing so? An Indianapolis Star article reports that the city bar association is forming a new political action committee...

?New Politics? Report Delivered to Diverse Audiences

Posted on September 07, 2010
Readers around the country continue to learn about the first-ever analysis of judicial election spending over the past decade, co-authored by the Justice at Stake Campaign, from articles in both general and law-focused publications. The report is entitled ?The New Politics of Judicial Elections 2000-2009: Decade of Change...

National Group Bankrolls IA Ouster Bid

Posted on September 07, 2010
A national conservative organization, American Family Association, says it already has pumped “a couple of hundred thousand dollars” into a campaign to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices in retention elections. The disclosure is another sign of the heated controversy playing out in Iowa  over the high court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage, and the extent [...

Brownback Questions KS Merit Selection

Posted on September 07, 2010
The Republican candidate for governor in Kansas, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, has questioned whether the state’s merit-based process for selecting Supreme Court justices is constitutional. Brownback doesn’t plan to propose changes to the process, which recently was challenged in a federal court lawsuit (see Gavel Grab)...

Two OH Ethics Complaints Dismissed

Posted on September 07, 2010
Intense politicking for the Ohio Supreme Court has fueled a number of ethics complaints against candidates (see Gavel Grab). But now a state disciplinary panel has dismissed two of the complaints, both brought by Ohio Democrats. The panel dismissed a complaint that Justice Maureen O’Connor (photo at left), seeking the position of chief justice, endorsed [...

NRA Judge-Targeting ?In Pursuit of Power?

Posted on September 06, 2010
The NRA has gone from no involvement in Supreme Court nomination battles to engaged opposition to President Obama’s two nominees. Why? In Slate, Dahlia Lithwick explores an answer in an essay entitled “Shoot First, Confirm Later.” She questions why, when Solicitor General Elena Kagan “endorsed the NRA’s view of the Second Amendment,” it ended up [...

FL Foreclosures-Only Courts Draw Scrutiny

Posted on September 06, 2010
In Florida, a state that is setting record for foreclosures, new foreclosures-only courts are getting a workout and stirring controversy. A lengthy New York Times article examines debate over the new courts, which are staffed by retired judges and intended to slash a foreclosures backlog by 62 percent in a year...

Runoff Voting for NC Judgeship Gets Attention

Posted on September 06, 2010
A new method called instant runoff voting will be used for the first time statewide in North Carolina, to elect an appeals court judge in November. Thirteen candidates have filed to run for the seat, according to an Associated Press article. The method is getting watched by voting reform advocates across the country...

Editorial: Judicial Vacancies Imperil Justice

Posted on September 06, 2010
There’s enough political blame to go around, but the bottom line is that the failure to fill vacant federal judgeships hurts the delivery of justice in the United States, a Los Angeles Times editorial warns. The editorial relies on an earlier article in the same newspaper reporting that almost one out of eight federal judgeships [...

Court Rejects Challenge to IL Disclosure Law

Posted on September 03, 2010
A federal judge has rejected a motion by a Virginia-based group seeking to block enforcement of Illinois election laws that require public disclosure of campaign spending and contributions. U.S. District Judge William Hart turned down the bid by the Center for Individual Freedom, a conservative, nonprofit advocacy group that has been a significant spender in [...

AL Justice Gives Across Party Lines

Posted on September 03, 2010
It’s rare, but it’s happened again: Another Republican justice on Alabama’s Supreme Court has donated campaign cash to a Democratic candidate for that bench. Justice Champ Lyons gave $1,000 to Circuit Judge Mac Parsons, who is challenging Justice Tom Parker, a Republican, according to a Gadsden Times article...

James Bopp: Lowering the Volume?

Posted on September 02, 2010
Is Indiana-based lawyer James Bopp Jr. backing away from his published remarks early this year about a grand plan to “dismantle” campaign finance law? If an article from the Open Secrets blog of the Center for Responsive Politics is an indication, Bopp has at least lowered his volume...

New Questions About Prosecuting Youngest Detainee

Posted on September 02, 2010
The first military commissions trial to be launched during the Obama administration has been interrupted, but that has not halted disturbing new questions about the prosecution. According to a recent New York Times article, “Obama administration officials are alarmed by the first case to go to trial under revamped rules...

?New Politics? Report Persists in Spotlight

Posted on September 01, 2010
The first-ever analysis of judicial election spending over the past decade not only keeps getting headlines but also is providing a popular news media tool for looking at this year’s state contests in a broader context. When the Associated Press, for example, recently reported on the political climate heating up in Michigan–especially over elections that will [...

TX Court: No Divorces for Gay Couples

Posted on September 01, 2010
A Texas appeals court has tossed out a lower court’s ruling that two men who were married in Massachusetts, and who moved to Texas, could get divorced there. The 5th District Court of Appeals said state District Judge Tena Callahan (see Gavel Grab) had incorrectly ruled that the state’s ban on same-sex marriages violated the [...

Bopp Lawsuit Challenges HI Campaign Finance Law

Posted on September 01, 2010
No doubt that activist lawyer James Bopp Jr. of Terre Haute, Indiana gets around. One of the latest lawsuits that he’s filed challenges a new campaign finance law in Hawaii. According to a Honolulu Star Advertiser article, the lawsuit in federal court seeks to throw out a ban on political contributions by state and county [...

Female Chief Justice Picked in Virginia

Posted on September 01, 2010
Gender barriers on some high courts keep falling. Justices seated on the Virginia Supreme Court have elected their first female chief justice, Cynthia D. Kinser, and she will assume the role in February, according to a Washington Post article. A recent article in the ABA Journal reported that 20 women were serving as chief justices [...

Dispatches from Judicial Elections Sizzle

Posted on August 31, 2010
A website created by several incumbent Maryland judges to spotlight the raunchy sayings of a judicial hopeful is only one of several sizzling judicial election dispatches from around the country at August’s end. The website http://www.scottbeckmantherealstory...

Judges Seek Better Protection Against Threats

Posted on August 31, 2010
Two groups representing Social Security and immigration judges have asked the U.S. government to take new steps to protect them from the threat of violence. Judge Dana Leigh Marks, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, offered some of the worst horror stories at a session in Washington, according to an NPR report: “One [...

Almost One in Eight U.S. Judgeships Vacant

Posted on August 31, 2010
It’s hardly a new story, but now it’s squarely in the national eye. A Los Angeles Times report documents that almost one out of eight federal judgeships is vacant across the country. This article in a major national newspaper not only underscores–but draws attention to–the impact of political partisanship in stalling judicial confirmations...

Corporate Political Money ?Radioactive? Now?

Posted on August 31, 2010
Some corporate political spending has become “radioactive” in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling and an angry public response. That’s the intriguing analysis offered by Eliza Newlin Carney in a National Journal article, based in part on a public backlash over big contributions by Target Co...

IA Justice: Marriage Ruling Showed Judicial Independence

Posted on August 31, 2010
With Iowa’s state Supreme Court under fire for its decision legalizing same-sex marriage, a sitting justice has defended the ruling as exemplifying judicial independence. Justice Mark Cady, addressing graduates of the University of Iowa College of Law, delivered these remarks earlier this year about the controversial decision, according to a Des Moines Register article: “Judicial [...

WA Court Weighs New Recusal Rule

Posted on August 31, 2010
Washington state’s Supreme Court is considering a rule change requiring judges to disqualify themselves in cases involving large campaign backers. It is a direct response to a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. The state Supreme Court is expected to discuss in September whether to adopt a rule requiring a judge to [...

IN Judicial Ethics Rule Survives Challenge

Posted on August 31, 2010
A federal appeals court has rejected a second attempt by an anti-abortion group to challenge an Indiana ethics rule barring judges from telling their views about abortions. The Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the challenge brought by Indiana Right to Life Inc...

Lawsuit Hits KS Merit System for Picking Justices

Posted on August 30, 2010
Several Kansans, represented by activist lawyer James Bopp of Indiana, have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the way state Supreme Court justices are selected under Kansas’ merit-based selection system. The lawsuit seeks a court order blocking a nominating commission from filling a vacancy on the state Supreme Court created by retirement and death of Chief [...

Weaver Resigns, Shakes up Michigan High Court

Posted on August 30, 2010
The surprise resignation of Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Weaver, an independent-minded jurist who feuded with her fellow Republicans in their 4-3 majority, has shaken up the court and the political landscape. Justice Weaver’s resignation seemed to herald new fireworks over November’s elections...

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