judgesonmerit.org

Donald Hoffman, a freelance columnist, has written a thoughtful piece in the Allentown Morning Call on the need for reform and improvement throughout Pennsylvania’s state government. He’s included a concise summary of the advantages of Merit Selection:

Every judicial election, voters choose judges who’ve maneuvered the path of partisan politics but whose names they’ve never heard of. Judges should be nominated by the executive [and] scrutinized for approval by legislators, and serve independently of political party bosses and campaigns.

Well put. Hoffman identifies two areas that Merit Selection addresses better than partisan elections: seating the most qualified judges, and having judges decide cases impartially.

In the Merit Selection system that’s been proposed for Pennsylvania’s appellate courts, the state senate would evaluate nominees who have also been vetted by a nonpartisan citizen-based nominating commission and the governor. These three stages of evaluation help ensure that we get superior jurists on the bench. Then, those judges stand before the public in nonpartisan retention elections; first after a four-year term and every ten years thereafter.

The benefits of so many layers of evaluation and scrutiny don’t just mean that we get the most qualified judges on the appellate courts. It also enables the judges to serve impartially, removed from the influence of special interests that contribute to judicial election campaigns.

We’re happy to see Merit Selection included as part of a call for meaningful reform in Pennsylvania government.

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