May 14, 2008

Elected Not Selected

An email from David Fowler explains the Judicial Selection Commission issue:

Tennessee's Constitution (Article VI, Section 3) provides: "The Judges of the Supreme Court shall be elected by the qualified voters of the State."

So, why are our Supreme Court Justices appointed by the Governor from a slate of names provided by a group of appointed citizens dominated by representatives of special interest lawyer organizations?

Good question!

The reason is that in 1994, in conflict with the plain language of the constitution, the legislature passed a law creating this system of appointment where the people only have the right to vote to retain or not retain those who have been appointed.

But, yesterday (May 13th) the Tennessee State Senate's Government Operations Committee refused to pass a bill that would have continued this unconstitutional system. In doing so showing respect for the plain language of the constitution and respect for the rights and privileges of the people to be in control of the Judiciary that they created.

But that is not the end of the issue. To learn more about what you can do, go to our Grassroots Action Center. You will find an easy and convenient way to let legislators know what you think about this issue.

And, according to a good source of mine, many judges, trial lawyers, and the Tennessee Bar Association have been heavily lobbying legislators to retain the current system. You can understand why - they fear having to actually run for the job. Most appellate judges have never, ever actually run for office. They were appointed to the bench. Then they faced "retention votes" ever since being appointed. The only campaign they have ever run was to lobby the Judicial Selection Commission to put them on the list of three names submitted to the governor.

The Bar Association and the Trial Lawyers like having control of the Judicial Selection Commission; they don't want voters involved. Ironic, isn't it, that lawyers and judges want to ignore the clear language of the Tennessee constitution.

Hey, you know who else wants to continue letting lawyers and politicians pick the judges? The Tennessee Democratic Party. Just ask Mike.

That puts the Tennessee Democratic Party at odds with 94 percent of the Tennessee electorate.

In a state-wide poll conducted by the polling company™, on February 27th of this year, only 6 percent of Tennesseans said they thought lawyers should have the most input on the selection of judges.