Litigation

Fair Courts Have no Room for ?Groveling for Cash?

By Peter Hardin

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 the Star.

To back up her concern, she cites data from Justice at Stake:

“In 2006, the nonpartisan Justice at Stake reported the median expenditure of state supreme court candidates was $250,000. In Alabama, $8.2 million was spent on one race for chief justice.”

Neal makes her remarks about Indiana’s merit system in the context of a challenge posed in Missouri to that state’s system. The controversy (see Gavel Grab) even has drawn the attention of the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

Neal defends Indiana’s merit selection system for appellate and state Supreme Court judges. She also commends the record of Justice Theodore Boehm, who is retiring from the state Supreme Court, as evidence of the success of the merit system.

You can learn more about appointive/retention systems from Justice at Stake’s issues page on the topic.

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 09, 2010 (boomark / email).