judgesonmerit.org

An Associated Press article chronicles the rising costs of judicial elections, focusing on current contests in the Midwest. This sounds just like what we’ve been seeing in Pennsylvania — rising contributions from lawyers and entities likely to come before the courts, fundraising records being broken and spending by third party groups to influence elections.

The article questions business representatives and trial lawyers about why they give to these campaigns. But the issue is put into real focus by Charlie Hall of Justice At Stake who explains why requiring groups to disclose their donors and requiring judges to recuse when donors appear before them makes sense: “‘The thinking is, if you took away the financial incentives for having your judges on the court, you would dry up the money.’”

It’s time to get money out of the judicial selection process and get judges out of the fundraising business. We think Merit Selection is the way to do this for the appellate courts of Pennsylvania.