Here comes the judge. Straight out of the ballot box. The independent judiciary of the founding fathers didn’t quite survive the “empower the people” era of populist President Andrew Jackson, who opened wide the doors to judicial elections.
Today, 87 percent of state and local judges rule at the mercy of the voters. The people’s court, indeed. But with judges forced to amass campaign war chests, knee-deep or neck-deep in dough and caught up in negative, partisan campaigns. Some say that the halls of justice are compromised, the scales tilted.
Critics from business, the law, and academia say that it’s time to take the bench off the auction block. The integrity of the judiciary, the whims of voters, and the power of deep pockets: tuning up the American judiciary.
Guests:
Roderick M. Hills, co-chair of the Committee for Economic Development’s Subcommittee on Judicial Selection
Roy Schotland, Professor of Law at Georgetown University and author of “Elective Judges’ Campaign Financing: Are State Judges’ Robes the Emperor’s Clothes of American Democracy?”
Chief Justice Thomas Philips, elected Chief Justice of the Texas supreme court.