Litigation

Texas Chief Justice Champions Merit Selection

By Lissette Villarruel

?We must eliminate cynicism, money and partisanship in judicial selection,? Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson (right) declared in an opinion column in The Dallas Morning News.

Echoing a recent address before the Texas Legislature, Jefferson argued for merit selection, using his own career as an example of flawed judicial elections. Although Jefferson comfortably won three statewide elections, a July 2008 poll discovered that 86% of people had ??never heard of?? him. Obviously, his ?success depended primarily on a straight-ticket partisan vote? rather than on his qualifications.

However, Jefferson stated, voters are the ones who suffer: ?When a judge?s victory is based on party over principle, money over merit, cynicism over the rule of law, voters lose.?

In the current system, Jefferson observes, judges solicit funds from lawyers who later appear in court, which obviously leads parties to question the judge?s impartiality. Jefferson?s solution is simple:

We must eliminate cynicism, money and partisanship in judicial selection. We should adopt a system for judges that has two primary components. Judges should achieve office by merit rather than whim, and voters should hold judges accountable, based on their records, through subsequent retention elections.

For more information on Texas, you can visit previous Gavel Grab postings.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 13, 2009 (boomark / email).