Litigation

PAC Seeks Conservative Christians on MN Bench

Posted on June 16, 2010
A new political action committee in Minnesota is backing a slate of judicial candidates with conservative Christian beliefs. The Justice in Minnesota PAC was set up by two Republican activists,  Joe Salmon and Dorothy Fleming, according to an article in The Minnesota Independent...

Nasty Politics Stirring in MI Judicial Election

Posted on June 15, 2010
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttOMcjtgn_M The politicking over the state Supreme Court in Michigan already is getting nasty, with Democrats targeting a sitting justice as allied with “Big Oil” and hinting at the justice nodding off in the courtroom...

Court Restores Some Partisan Limits on WI Judges

Posted on June 15, 2010
Wisconsin judges will be permitted less partisan activity, as a result of a federal appeals court’s ruling that rolled back part of a lower court decision from a year ago. The judges may continue to join political parties. But they may not endorse partisan candidates for office or directly solicit campaign cash, a panel of the [...

AZ Public-Finance Order Sparks Alarm

Posted on June 15, 2010
The Supreme Court’s emergency order blocking release of matching dollars to publicly funded candidates in Arizona continues to spark alarm from editorial boards. The future of a voluntary public financing plan in Connecticut is threatened by the high court’s action, warns an editorial in New London’s The Day newspaper...

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Prop 8 Trial: Almost Done, But Not Concluded

Posted on June 15, 2010
Although the final arguments this week in California’s historic same-sex marriage trial won’t be televised, they will get attention nationwide. Federal Judge Vaughn Walker is not expected to rule from the bench Wednesday, which adds to the suspense...

?Clear Message for Change? on Picking PA Judges

Posted on June 14, 2010
Citing bipartisan support by the current governor and three predecessors, a Delaware County Times editorial argues that the time has arrived for Pennsylvanians to vote on adopting merit selection for appellate judges. The editorial was one of a number that cited a recent poll by Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, reflecting strong support for a merit selection [...

Fuller Picture of Kagan Emerging?

Posted on June 14, 2010
There is a some lifting of the fog on the “work and thinking” of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, given the public release of thousands of pages of  documents, a New York Times editorial suggests. Here is the editorial’s view: “An initial perusal of thousands of pages of documents from her years in the Clinton White [...

IA Bar Leader Strongly Defends Merit System

Posted on June 14, 2010
In the midst of a pitched election cycle, the president of the Iowa State Bar Association is making a strong appeal to keep politics out of picking judges. Jane V. Lorentzen defends Iowa’s merit selection method for choosing judges in a Des Moines Register column...

Ethics Commission Rejects Complaint Against MO Bar

Posted on June 12, 2010
The Missouri Ethics Commission has dismissed an ethics complaint against the Missouri Bar by James Harris, the leader of a challenge to the merit system that the state uses to select many of its judges. Harris’s complaint alleged the Bar should educate?not advocate for or against a political position?and had spent large sums to campaign against [...

?Potential for Mischief? in Big-Money Judicial Elections

Posted on June 12, 2010
There is a huge “potential for mischief,” and public confidence is eroded when state Supreme Court justices have to raise big money to get or keep their jobs, a Mississippi newspaper editorial warns. The  editorial in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger chiefly tackles the topic of past tort reform, and how  an appeal before the state Supreme Court [...

Kagan Played Role on Abortion Limits

Posted on June 12, 2010
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan played a significant role in helping frame the Clinton administration’s fight against a Republican bill intended to limit abortion. Kagan was trying to boost women’s rights and simultaneously sharpen the political message of the administration and its backers, according to newly released documents from the William J...

No Cameras for Prop 8 Closing Arguments

Posted on June 12, 2010
Closing arguments set for next week in the historic same-sex marriage trial in California won’t be televised. Federal Judge Vaughn Walker has denied a request by media groups to cover the final argument phase, the San Francisco Chronicle reported...

Another Editorial Shells Supreme Court on AZ Order

Posted on June 12, 2010
Another editorial in a major national newspaper is sharply critical of the Supreme Court’s order blocking release of matching dollars to publicly funded candidates in Arizona. A Washington Post editorial says, “On the subject of campaign finance regulation, the Supreme Court is out of control...

Elections Called a ?Gosh-Awful? Route to Fair Courts

Posted on June 10, 2010
A plainspoken and blunt editorial in The Birmingham News deplores the “already outrageous” million-dollar-plus spending in this year’s Alabama Supreme Court campaigns and urges that elections be scrapped in favor of merit selection. The merit appeal comes from a major newspaper in the state that led the nation in the past decade for big spending on [...

Calls Mount in Michigan for More Campaign Disclosure

Posted on June 10, 2010
A campaign watchdog and a newspaper editorial board delivered a one-two punch to Michigan legislators this week in appealing for robust disclosure of corporate political spending. Rich Robinson of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network branded existing campaign disclosure in Michigan as “pathetic” in  a commentary in the Detroit Free Press, and a Grand Rapids Press editorial [...

?Moral Vote? Slate Losing in CA Judicial Election

Posted on June 09, 2010
Voters in San Diego County, California appear to have turned back a slate of candidates backed by religious and social conservatives, which was seeking to oust four incumbent Superior Court judges. The incumbent judges “were headed to easy victories” over  four challengers backed by Better Courts Now, a group working to unify the “moral vote” and [...

Fair Courts Have no Room for ?Groveling for Cash?

Posted on June 09, 2010
Indiana would be well-served to stick with its version of Missouri’s pioneering merit selection plan for choosing top judges, an Indiana commentator writes. “If the public wants an unbiased legal system, it can’t ask judicial candidates to grovel for money,” Andrea Neal, former editor of the Indianapolis Star editorial pages, says in a column published by [...

PA Poll: Strong Support for Merit Selection

Posted on June 09, 2010
A solid majority of Pennsylvanians–62 percent–favors replacing contested elections for appellate judges with merit selection, according to a poll conducted for Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, a partner of the Justice at Stake Campaign. In discussing their views, 73 percent told pollsters they do not think the most qualified candidates currently win elections for the bench, and 76 percent [...

High Court Confirmation Hearings ?A Joke?

Posted on June 09, 2010
Not only are Supreme Court confirmation hearings a “joke,” but the process has taken a toll on the kind of nominees who presidents select. In advance of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the confirmation of nominee Elena Kagan later this month, experts provided these and other analyses at an American Constitution Society for Law and Policy [...

NY Times Blasts ?Reckless? AZ Matching Funds Order

Posted on June 09, 2010
A Supreme Court order blocking release of matching funds to publicly funded candidates in Arizona was “reckless” and will leave the state’s model campaign finance system “substantially demolished,” a New York Times editorial warns...

Prop 8 Trial Judge Poses Searching Questions

Posted on June 09, 2010
Federal Judge Vaughn R. Walker has formally set June 16 for final arguments in the historic California trial about same-sex marriage, while posing more than nine pages of difficult questions to the opposing sides. Of gay rights activists, he asks, “Until very recently, same-sex relationships did not enjoy legal protection anywhere in the United States...

Branstad Wins GOP Nod for IA Governor Race

Posted on June 09, 2010
Former four-term Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad won the Republican nomination to make a comeback try and seek another term, as he defeated rivals including a candidate who focused on a state Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. Branstad (photo at left) will run as the GOP nominee in the general election against Democratic Gov...

Wednesday Media Summary

Posted on June 09, 2010
JUSTICE AT STAKE Judges On Merit: Press conference to bring support from three branches, both sides of the aisle Susan – 6/8/2010 Indianapolis Star: Who should pick judges? Indiana’s system works Andrea Neal – 6/9/2010 KAGAN COMMENTARY Wall Street Journal/Law Blog: Kagan?s Brushes With the Boldfaced (While a Supreme Court Clerk) Jess Bravin – 6/8/2010 Washington Times: Kagan’s ‘full faith’ in same-sex marriage Editorial [...

Brief Examines Aftermath of ?Citizens United?

Posted on June 08, 2010
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling is so far-reaching that it has “re-ordered the priorities in our democracy,” campaign finance expert Monica Youn of the Brennan Center for Justice writes in a new issue brief. In “Citizens United: The Aftermath,” released by the American Constitution Society, Youn examines public reaction, how the ruling may influence upcoming [...

Same-Sex Marriage Issue Cooling in IA?

Posted on June 08, 2010
On the eve of Tuesday’s Republican primary in Iowa, it appeared that such issues as jobs and the state’s poor economy have overtaken the same-sex marriage issue for voters. That was the bottom line of a New York Times article datelined Des Moines...

Senate Confirms First Korean-American District Judge

Posted on June 08, 2010
The Senate’s confirmation of Judge Lucy Koh for the federal bench in California will make her the first Korean-American district judge in the country. Two other women picked by President Obama for judgeships also were confirmed Monday, as the Obama continued “reshaping the lower ranks of the federal judiciary, [by] nominating an unprecedented number of minorities [...

Supreme Court Blocks AZ Matching Funds For Now

Posted on June 08, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a setback Tuesday to backers of public financing for election campaigns, barring Arizona from providing matching funds to qualifying candidates for statewide and legislative offices at least temporarily. The high court’s order threw “a number of high profile campaigns into disarray just weeks before candidates were to start receiving money,” according [...

?Why the Law and Politics Shouldn?t Mix?

Posted on June 07, 2010
A campaign by a coalition of religious conservatives to oust four incumbent judges in San Diego County, California, helps make a strong case for an end to state judicial elections, a national legal commentator writes. Andrew Cohen, legal editor for CBS News Radio, offers his critique in a commentary published by Politics Daily entitled, “The Case [...

Alabama Leads for Judicial Election Spending; JAS Cited

Posted on June 07, 2010
Alabama leads the nation this year in spending on state Supreme Court elections at more than $1 million, and that is an off-year pace with only three of the court’s nine seats listed on the ballot. Alabama Supreme Court candidates raised and spent a whopping $41 million in the past decade, a Birmingham News article reported [...

MO Bar President Rebuts Journal Editorial

Posted on June 07, 2010
Responding to a negative Wall Street Journal editorial, the  State Bar president said Missouri’s  nationally recognized merit selection system has fostered broad public confidence in the state’s  judges. “No amount of money can keep Missourians from recognizing a bad idea when they see one,” H...

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