< Back to the O'Connor Judicial Selection Plan
Judges in the United States are selected through a variety of methods, from popular elections to appointment by chief executives, legislatures, or other judges. Some of these methods are more effective than others in assuring public confidence in the integrity and quality of our courts.
Through legal and empirical analysis and recommendations, thought leadership, and substantive support, IAALS works to identify and promote models for choosing state and federal judges that emphasize qualifications and experience, limit political considerations and special interest influence, and provide transparency.
In addition to IAALS' O'Connor Judicial Selection Plan, we offer these other resources regarding judicial selection:
- FAQs: Judges in the United States answers many common questions about the court systems and judges in the United States, like why we have both state and federal courts and how are they different, whether there more state or federal judges, what types of state courts there are, how judge reach the bench, how long state judges stay on the bench, among others questions.
- Selection & Retention of States Judges: Methods from Across the Country shines a light on each state and its specific methods for selecting and retaining judges. These easy-to-read charts break down how judges reach the bench, and how they stay there, across all three court levels.
- Cornerstones of State Judicial Selection couples the desired attributes for court systems and individual judges with principles (or "cornerstones") for judicial selection processes that are most likely to produce court systems and judges with these attributes.
- An Uncommon Dialogue: What Do We Want in Our Judges & How Do We Get There? documents a discussion about judicial selection between a group of thirty legal experts who shared perspectives on essential attributes for judges and how to put judges with those attributes on the bench. The discussion was facilitated by IAALS, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, and The Aspen Institute Justice & Society Program.