judgesonmerit.org

There is uncertainty in Tennessee about how appellate court judges will be selected now that the legislature failed to renew Tennesee’s Merit Selection system, which is scheduled to sunset next year. There is a vacancy on the Supreme Court, and apparently some hesitancy among potential applicants. This is not only because it’s not clear what the selection process will entail, but also because of specific concerns related to judicial elections.

Former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Penny White, now a law professor, attributes the lack of applicants to concern about out-of-state money flowing in to influence judicial elections: “‘It only happens in states where there are elected judges on the bench.’”

We understand this concern, because this is what happened in Pennsylvania last year. We’ll keep watching Tennessee to see what happens there.

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