judgesonmerit.org

Louisiana is electing a new Supreme Court justice today, and both candidates for the seat as well as outside observers are unhappy about the tone of the election. WWLTV reports: ” A political race between Jimmy Kuhn and Greg Guidry has turned nasty, but this is a race for the Supreme Court of Louisiana, in theory, a race that’s supposed to be above this.”

Each candidate has complaints about tactics used to support his opponent, but they do agree that the current situation threatens to damage the court itself:

And what started out as a race for Louisiana’s highest judicial office looks like standard Louisiana politics.

Kuhn said he found the nasty tone of the race “extremely” disappointing. Guidry agreed, “I’m surprised and disappointed.”

The Louisiana Organization for Judicial Excellence is calling for change, urging a new way to select judges. Chip Wagar explained:

I think the whole process is degrading to the judges that are involved. . . . What we would like to see is merit selection of judges, where we don’t have to go through this whole process.

This makes sense to us.