News & Updates

During a series of panels that comprised a Defending Iowa’s Courts event, the executive director of the state ACLU chapter described an organized national effort to dismantle judicial merit selection processes. The panel also discussed legislative attacks on Iowa’s courts in the wake of the Varnum v. Brien decision and expectations that the other supreme court justices who joined the unanimous opinion in the case would see retention challenges in 2012 and 2016.

The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel recently highlighted Rebuilding Justice:" A provocative and important portrait of the American judicial system, Rebuilding Justice is a call to action for all citizens – lawyers and non-lawyers alike, stressing the need to support and protect this crucial cornerstone of our democracy."

The late Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who served on the O'Connor Advisory Committee and was a recipient of the Transparent Courthouse® Award, is now being honored by the Ohio Supreme Court, which is naming the Ohio Judicial Center after the second-longest serving justice in Ohio's history.

House Speaker Dean Cannon announced that he would not seek major changes to the judiciary in the 2012 legislative session. In the 2011 session, Cannon unsuccessfully proposed a constitutional amendment that would have split and expanded the supreme court. Instead, voters in 2012 will only weigh in on whether to require senate confirmation of supreme court appointments.

This week, Rebecca Love Kourlis contributed a guest post to the National Law School's Forum on Legal Education: But, of course, systemic change doesn’t happen overnight. Progress will be incremental. The people who can make it happen are the deans and law professors who are committed to the best possible education for tomorrow’s lawyers.

President Obama nominated supreme court justice Andrew Hurwitz to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. If Hurwitz is confirmed, Governor Brewer will have the opportunity to make her third appointment to the five-member court.

The Fall 2011 edition of Transparent Courthouse® Quarterly is now available. Transparent Courthouse® Quarterly is a quarterly newsletter reporting highlights from all IAALS initiatives. Sign up for Transparent Courthouse® Quarterly and other IAALS…

This article from the Colorado Lawyer discusses the 2011 conference on evaluating appellate judges and its outcomes. In 2010, a number of states saw organized opposition to the retention of Supreme Court justices. This opposition was motivated…

The November 2011 edition of Selection Snapshots is now available.

The judicial nominating commission released 40 years of data on those who have been recommended and appointed to the D.C. superior court and court of appeals. The commission’s process has become increasingly transparent in recent years, beginning with the release of the names of all judicial applicants in 2008.

There are fourteen trial court seats up for election in Manhattan, but candidates are all running unopposed. The five supreme court candidates were nominated at a party convention. Of the nine civil court candidates, only one faced an opponent in the primary.

According to a report on campaign spending in state supreme court elections in 2009-10, special interest groups accounted for 30% of the money spent and paid for three out of four attack advertisements. The $4.9 million spent on judicial retention elections more than doubled the $2.2 million spent in such races during the entire decade.

President Obama’s efforts to fill judicial vacancies have been complicated by the American Bar Association’s ratings of potential nominees. The ABA’s judicial vetting committee has rated 14 of 185 potential nominees as “not qualified,” and the administration has a policy of not nominating such candidates.

Christie campaigned for Republican state legislators, who are up for reelection in November, on the issue of “elitist judges.” Christie plans to propose a constitutional amendment to bypass the ruling.

According to a new report, Michigan had the most expensive judicial races in 2009-10, accounting for one fourth of the $38.4 million spent nationwide. The state also saw the highest spending on TV advertisements and the most attack ads.

Dean Larry Kramer of Stanford writes that law schools don't necessarily teach the way they did 20 or 30 years ago. Many, he claims, have evolved to meet the needs of the profession. On the contrary, the professional education law students get today…

A joint legislative committee considered changing the process for selecting the state’s appellate judges. The primary proposal is to put party labels for judicial candidates back on the ballot, in order to enhance voter information.

Rebecca Love Kourlis shared the themes of Rebuilding Justice, including challenges and solutions to the problems facing our civil justice system, with Huffington Post readers.

“The New Politics of Judicial Elections 2009-10,” by the Justice at Stake Campaign, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and the National Institute on Money in State Politics, is released as the presidential race is heating up -- with…

Governor Hickenlooper ultimately chose a state trial court judge to fill the seat. The governor reported making his decision on the basis of conversations with sitting justices, diverse legal groups, business groups, and public officials.