Fair Courts in the Cross-Fire

[groovedaddy]

Holding elections to fill important state judgeships is one of those ideas that may sound good in theory but works terribly in practice. As spending in state judicial races by special interests has vastly escalated in recent years, so has the threat to public confidence in judicial neutrality that is fundamental to the justice system.

Now the lavish spending by interest groups and the politicization of state court judgeships is spreading from races between two or more judicial candidates to the “retention” ballots that were supposed to shield judges from the rough-and-tumble of the election cycle.

More than two dozen states are having active judicial elections this fall. A total of 18 seats are being contested in multicandidate races in 11 states, while 37 sitting state justices are seeking voter approval in up-or-down “retention” elections in 15 states.

Between 2000 and 2009, state supreme court candidates collected more than $206 million in donations, more than doubling the record of the previous decade. States that previously have been home to some of the most expensive and raucous judicial races — Michigan, Alabama, Ohio and Texas — will again have competitive contests this fall.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/opinion/29wed1.html?th&emc=th