06 March 2005
Depoliticizing the Judiciary
The climate in Washington has become very partisan; it is time to depoliticize the judicial branch. Ironically, this would best be accomplished by determining appointments to the bench through popular elections.
Judgeships in many parts of the country are filled through partisan or non-partisan elections. It is only natural for federal judges to be selected by popular vote, isolating that decision from the rivalries of Congressmen and Presidents who seek to preserve their jobs in office. This should percolate to as high as Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court, to which selection of Justices seems to cause the most bitter disputes on Capitol Hill.
Of course, the voting public needs help in studying the qualifications and wisdom of potential judicial appointees. Perhaps a review board of legal authorities, academic and practicing, can be established in the face of resentment towards trial lawyers and others in the legal profession. The League of Women Voters might be a model to be emulated. In any case, the result will be no worse than the wrangling that now belabors our judicial nomination process.
The climate in Washington has become very partisan; it is time to depoliticize the judicial branch. Ironically, this would best be accomplished by determining appointments to the bench through popular elections.
Judgeships in many parts of the country are filled through partisan or non-partisan elections. It is only natural for federal judges to be selected by popular vote, isolating that decision from the rivalries of Congressmen and Presidents who seek to preserve their jobs in office. This should percolate to as high as Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court, to which selection of Justices seems to cause the most bitter disputes on Capitol Hill.
Of course, the voting public needs help in studying the qualifications and wisdom of potential judicial appointees. Perhaps a review board of legal authorities, academic and practicing, can be established in the face of resentment towards trial lawyers and others in the legal profession. The League of Women Voters might be a model to be emulated. In any case, the result will be no worse than the wrangling that now belabors our judicial nomination process.
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