News & Updates

There are three supreme court seats up for election in November, one of which is an open seat. Though the parties do not officially nominate candidates until their conventions later this year, Democrats give non-binding nods to favorites at the spring convention.

The house of representatives voted to abolish the Kansas Commission on Judicial Performance and end the state’s judicial performance evaluation program. While House Democrats believe the program provides important information to voters about judges, Republicans questioned its impartiality since all evaluated judges have been recommended for retention.

The judicial nominating commission created last April by Governor Perdue held hearings in three cities to hear from the public about the qualities and characteristics judges should possess. The commission screens and recommends applicants for positions on the supreme court, court of appeals, and superior court.

The senate approved a proposed ballot measure that would raise the retirement age for judges from 70 to 75. A similar measure is stalled in the house.

Nevada Senator William J. Raggio died on February 23. Senator Raggio was a 2010 IAALS Transparent Courthouse® Award recipient, along with his fellow Nevadan former Assembly Speaker Barbara E. Buckley. IAALS chose Senator Raggio because of his extraordinary efforts to promote a judicial selection system in Nevada that would assure impartiality and accountability.

With no Democrats filing to run, the March Republican primary will determine the successor to Justice Thomas Woodall, who is not seeking reelection. The two candidates are a court of appeals judge and a circuit court judge, both of whom support partisan elections because they provide a cue to voters regarding a candidate’s philosophy.

The senate rejected a proposal supported by Governor Brownback that would have eliminated the judicial nominating commission's role in screening applicants for the state's court of appeals and given the senate a role in confirming appointments to this court.

A circuit court judge and former Republican is one of six candidates competing in the Democratic primary for a Cook County appellate court vacancy. With no Republican candidates, the Democratic primary will determine the winner of that seat and the other five Cook County appellate court seats.

Only one attorney applied to fill a district court vacancy. Some speculated that potential applicants were discouraged by the fact that the appointee must run in November to keep the seat, for which another attorney has already filed to run.

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.

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 house of representatives approved a plan that will, over time, eliminate 36 judgeships and cut $5.7 million from the state’s annual budget. The chief justice characterized the plan as “unprecedented” and “the largest cut in judgeships ever accomplished in the United States.”

Governor Christie criticized the Democratic-led senate for not yet having scheduled confirmation hearings for the supreme court nominees he named in late January. According to a judiciary committee member, they are looking into financial issues involving one of the nominees.