Litigation

Local NC Editor Likes Merit Selection

By Peter Hardin

A newspaper editor in North Carolina doesn’t mince words in his opinions about certain judges, but he nonetheless sides with retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in favoring merit selection.

“Most voters don’t know much about judicial candidates, and we’ve elected some doozies,” Matthew Eisley writes in a column published by the News & Observer. Eisley then notes that most North Carolina judges first are appointed by the governor, and “governors are fully capable of hiring and promoting the dim, the foolish and the biased.”

Eisley ultimately comes around to favoring merit selection, and up-or-down retention elections. He explains:

“Given our options, the best one might be ‘merit selection,’ in which a panel of lawyers and lay people recommends highly qualified candidates for gubernatorial appointment.

“The key to maintaining public support could be to put appointed judges through periodic retention elections without an opponent. That way citizens could dump lame and dirty judges. And judicial pay should rise, too, to lure top talent.

“O’Connor says she’s for it. Me, too. Oyez.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 22, 2010 (boomark / email).