Litigation

KS House Would Change Selection of Appeals Judges

Posted on February 25, 2011
The Kansas House of Representatives has passed a bill to replace merit selection of judges on the Court of Appeals with appointment by the governor, subject to state Senate confirmation. The current selection process, involving a judicial nominating commission that sends candidates to the governor, gives too much influence in the process to attorneys and [...

Texas Chief Justice Urges Election Reform

Posted on February 24, 2011
Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson of the Texas Supreme Court, delivering his biennial State of the Judiciary address, has renewed a call for reform of partisan judicial elections in the state. “A justice system based on some notion of Democratic or Republican judging is a system that cannot be trusted,” he said, according to transcript of [...

Federal Judiciary Eyes Belt-Tightening

Posted on February 24, 2011
If the federal government is forced to shut down as a result of a budget impasse in Congress, the federal judiciary has plans for dealing with it. A memo from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts was obtained by the Blog of Legal Times, and the memo said guidance on operating during such a [...

Law Profs Seek Supreme Ethics, Recusal Rules

Posted on February 24, 2011
More than 100 law professors have signed a letter seeking action by Congress to establish “mandatory and enforceable” ethics rules for Supreme Court justices. The letter also asks that Congress establish for the first time clear rules about the circumstances when an individual justice should recuse, or step aside from hearing a case, according to [...

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Thursday Gavel Grab Briefs

Posted on February 24, 2011
In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts: President Obama’s controversial nomination of Goodwin Liu, a Berkeley law professor, for a seat on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will be the topic of a second hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on March 2, according to the Blog of Legal Times...

IA Court-Stripping Bill on Marriage Licenses: Doomed?

Posted on February 24, 2011
Conservative Republicans in the Iowa House are pushing legislation to bar county recorders from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples — and also to tie the state Supreme Court’s hands from ruling on the issue. The latter proposal is an example of what is called “court-stripping,” or denying a court jurisdiction to consider certain hot-button [...

On Left, More Impeachment Talk

Posted on February 24, 2011
It’s not only activists on the right who are beating a drum for impeachment of judges with whom they disagree, on such issues as gay marriage or striking down the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. From the liberal side, a group called The Peace Team has a website that decries the Citizens United decision [...

Governor Names Three to IA High Court

Posted on February 23, 2011
Marking another milestone in modern Iowa history, Gov. Terry Branstad today named three new justices to the state Supreme Court. The three men, two judges and a lawyer, will fill vacancies created when Iowans voted on Election Day to oust three sitting justices, reacting with fury over a 2009 unanimous court ruling that permitted same-sex [...

U.S. to Stop Defending Federal Marriage Act

Posted on February 23, 2011
In a turnabout, President Obama has ordered an end to the federal government’s defense of a 1996 ban on gay marriage against lawsuits challenging it. Under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA),  married gay couples (in states where their union is permitted) have been denied a mix of federal benefits provided to heterosexual married couples, [...

Federal Judge Dimisses Health Care Law Challenge

Posted on February 23, 2011
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler in Washington, D.C. has thrown out a lawsuit saying that President Obama’s health care overhaul violated Americans’ religious freedom. The American Center for Law Justice, founded by Pat Robertson, brought the lawsuit...

Judge Defends KS Merit System Against ?Attack?

Posted on February 23, 2011
With Kansas’ merit selection system for picking Court of Appeals judges “under attack,” that bench’s chief judge has leapt to its defense. Judge Richard D. Greene contends in a Topeka Capital-Journal column that a bill in the legislature would replace merit selection with a “purely political selection process...

JAS Court Brief Defends Public Finance Provision

Posted on February 23, 2011
The Justice at Stake Campaign, warning that a “deluge of special interest money is eroding public trust in America’s courts,” is urging the Supreme Court to uphold a provision of many public campaign financing laws. An amicus brief filed by Justice at Stake with the Supreme Court this week addressed a nationally watched case from [...

Supreme Court: WA Campaign Disclosure Laws Stand

Posted on February 22, 2011
After a federal appeals court upheld Washington state?s campaign finance disclosure laws, the Supreme Court today declined to take up an appeal by the losing side. Human Life of Washington, which was ordered to make public its donors for a campaign opposing the state?s assisted suicide ballot measure, had filed the unsuccessful appeal bid with [...

Tuesday Gavel Grab Briefs

Posted on February 22, 2011
In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts: Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins praised the state’s system of retention (up-or-down) elections for top court justices, saying the only problem with it is that a candidate is running against the notion of an ideal jurist, according to a Daily Iowan article...

NC Voters: Court Rulings Tilted by Campaign Cash

Posted on February 22, 2011
Campaign contributions to judicial candidates can tilt a case’s outcome in the courtroom, an overwhelming majority of North Carolina voters said in a new poll. The Justice at Stake Campaign and North Carolina Center for Voter Education, a partner of JAS, commissioned the poll...

Ex-Judge?s Skimming an Argument for Merit Selection?

Posted on February 21, 2011
In the recent corruption trial of former Judge Mark Ciavarella, our friends at Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts find fresh  reasons to argue for getting judges “out of the fundraising business” by adopting merit selection. In a commentary entitled “Where Did That Campaign Money Go?” Shira Goodman, the group’s associate director, seizes on testimony by Ciavarella [...

Washington Post: Justices out of the Cloister

Posted on February 21, 2011
Amid a clamor about Supreme Court justices appearing before politically aligned groups, a Washington Post editorial proposes a middle ground to protect public trust in the court. Justices should not have to lead a monk’s life, yet there ought to be a way for them to make public appearances without drawing grave questions about their [...

Top IA Court Lacks Gender Diversity

Posted on February 21, 2011
Iowa’s Supreme Court is one of the least gender diverse state high courts in the country, following Iowans’ vote in November to oust three Supreme Court justices — including one woman. She was Chief Justice Marsha Ternus. Indiana and Idaho were joined by Iowa as the only states without a female justice after the ouster [...

FL Courts Face Large Funding Shortfall

Posted on February 21, 2011
With a wave of foreclosure cases halted, a primary source of revenue for Florida’s courts under a revised funding formula has been affected, and a $45 million shortfall in court funding now looms through the end of the fiscal year, ending June 30...

Monday Gavel Grab Briefs

Posted on February 21, 2011
In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts: “A judge does not check his First Amendment rights at the courthouse door, to be reclaimed at the expiration of his judicial tenure,” Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a ruling that endorsed an unnamed judge’s right to [...

Ex-Judge Gets Split Verdict in ?Cash-for-Kids? Case

Posted on February 18, 2011
A federal court jury returned a mixed verdict today in the corruption case of former Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., 61, of Luzerne County, Pa. He was accused in an unusual courtroom scandal case, and was charged with accepting kickbacks in exchange for ordering youthful offenders to a privately operated juvenile detention facility...

AZ Merit Selection Chronicled, Debated

Posted on February 18, 2011
With proposals to modify Arizona’s judicial system before the state legislature, the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University has published a background paper about the merit system for choosing judges in that state. The paper is entitled “Abandoning Judicial Merit Selection: ‘A Giant Step Backwards?’” The title draws on a quote by [...

Friday Gavel Grab Briefs

Posted on February 18, 2011
In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts: In part because court staff reductions have increased judges’ workloads, the Florida Supreme Court has asked the legislature to approve 80 more trial judges, according to an Associated Press article...

Political Conflict Embroils NJ Supreme Court

Posted on February 18, 2011
Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto of the New Jersey Supreme Court is the target of a state Senate-passed resolution urging him to resign if the state Assembly doesn’t start impeachment proceedings. The resolution reflects a political fight over the court...

Brandenburg: Budget Cuts Threaten Fair Courts

Posted on February 17, 2011
In the face of shrinking state court budgets, the Justice at Stake Campaign is making adequate court funding a top priority. Sweeping court budget cuts “pose a growing threat to a fair, impartial and independent judiciary,” it told an ABA task force session in Atlanta recently...

NY Times Editorial Hits ?Dangerous Threats?

Posted on February 17, 2011
It wasn’t a laughing matter when a Montana congressman urged that a judge with whom he disagreed should be put “on the endangered species list,” cautions a New York Times editorial, entitled “Dangerous Threats.” Republican Rep...

Thursday Gavel Grab Briefs

Posted on February 17, 2011
In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts: “Do Judicial Emergencies Matter? Nomination and Confirmation Delay During the 111th Congress” is the title of a paper posted online by the Brookings Institution and written by Russell Wheeler and Sara Binder...

Bill on Supreme Court Recusal Eyed

Posted on February 17, 2011
Rep. Christopher Murray, a Connecticut Democrat, said he is preparing to introduce legislation that would require Supreme Court justices to disclose why they recused themselves from hearing a case. His bill also would require the high court to set up a plan that would allow parties to a case to  “request the court to decide [...

Divergent Proposals on Partisanship in Court Elections

Posted on February 17, 2011
A bill in Missouri would remove partisanship from most judicial races, while a sharply divergent proposal in North Carolina would restore partisan labels for candidates seeking a seat on the bench. In Missouri, legislation would strip party identification from candidates for judgeships in parts of the state not covered by the Missouri Plan, a nationally [...

JAS Joins Letter Urging Action on Court Picks

Posted on February 16, 2011
Justice at Stake is one of 76 groups to sign a letter to U.S. Senate leaders urging faster action on federal judicial nominees, according to a news release, which warned that “obstructionist practices” in the Senate had reached a “state of crisis...

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