Governor Branstad recently made thirty appointments to the state’s district judicial nominating commissions. Many of them oppose the merit selection process, and at least one of them was active in the campaign to defeat the three justices up for retention in 2010.

The last election for supreme court chief justice, in 2006, was the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history in terms of fundraising, but the three Republicans candidates for the seat in 2012 are setting records so far for what they are not raising.

A Democratic lawmaker proposed a public financing system for supreme court elections, pointing to concerns about justices appearing to be influenced by campaign contributors.

The house of representatives approved a measure that would expand the governor’s power over the state’s judicial nominating commissions. The governor appoints the nine members of each commission, with the bar making recommendations for four of those members.

The District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission reported an increase in judicial applicants from 2010 to 2011, including an upswing in the number of applicants from larger law firms. The commission's chair attributed this to a greater effort by the commission to reach out to attorneys representing a cross-section of the bar.

A new site devoted to procedural fairness in the courts was recently launched by Judge Kevin Burke, District Judge in the Hennepin County (Minn.) District Court; Judge Steve Leben, Judge, Kansas Court of Appeals; the National Center for State Courts (with researcher David Rottman as its lead blogging participant); and Professor Tom Tyler, of Yale Law School.

The judicial nominating commission conducted final interviews of applicants for the supreme court vacancy created by Chief Justice Randall Shepard’s retirement. Three of the finalists are women, and Indiana is one of three states without a woman on its supreme court.

The state judicial nominating commission submitted the names of two men and one woman to the governor for the vacancy created by Chief Justice Randall Shepard's March retirement. The governor has 60 days to appoint one of the three nominees. Indiana is currently one of three states with no women on its supreme court.

In November 2011, Initial Discovery Protocols for Employment Cases Alleging Adverse Action were approved by the Civil Rules Advisory Committee for implementation in pilot projects across the nation. The Protocols were developed by a diverse group of employment lawyers, with assistance from IAALS.

Three justices are on the ballot in November, and their retention is expected to be hotly contested. One group that has mounted an anti-retention campaign is Restore Justice 2012, whose website lays out the justices’ voting records on issues of interest to the group. The group also unsuccessfully challenged two justices in 2010.

The February 2012 edition of the Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers newsletter is now available. Sign up for this and other IAALS newsletters here.

From February 6 to February 8, the Legal Ethics Forum held an online symposium about "the implications of economic pressures on the way we teach our students," which included posts from 22 contributors.