judgesonmerit.org

Iowa has used a merit selection process since 1962. Although their process is not perfect, observing judicial elections in sister states has confirmed for Iowans that they made the right choice. A June 11, 2008, editorial in The Des Moines Register addresses the problem of money in judicial elections:

Candidates must raise big money from potential litigants and law firms, and they wage campaigns that may suggest promising to take certain legal positions in exchange for votes.

This summary hits the nail on the head. No party or attorney wants to try her case against opposing counsel who has made monetary contributions to the presiding judge. No ethical judge will base her decision on which attorney’s pockets were deeper, of course. But the appearance of impropriety threatens to sully any elected judge’s reputation and threatens the judiciary’s unbiased, neutral reputation overall.

As the editorial notes, “Politics cannot be completely removed from judicial selection, but politics should not dominate, lest candidates be expected to make promises about how they will rule.”

We agree with this wise assessment. And though we can’t get politics completely out of the process of selecting appellate court judges, we can get the money out. We should follow Iowa’s good example and choose Merit Selection.

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