Should Politicians Take Over Arizona's Courts? A Special Event With The Honorable Ruth V. McGregor
Ruth McGregor praised Arizona's judicial selection process at the March Forum
AzAN Board President Mike Valder introduced the Hon. Ruth McGregor
AzAN's March 27 Forum
Do
we want to see Arizona's courts populated by the most skillful
politicians, or by judges whose respect for the law trumps ideology?
Conservatives in the Arizona legislature want to take us back more than
thirty years, to the bad-old-days when all judges had to run political
campaigns to be elected to the bench. Recently Arizona Chief Justice
Ruth V. McGregor eloquently described to the House Appropriations
Committee the myriad reasons why the legislature should reject Rep.
Russell Pearce's proposal (HCR 2063) and preserve Arizona's model
system of Merit Selection. AzAN supporters and concerned Arizonans came out to hear her share her views at AzAN's March Forum.
Should Politicians Take Over Arizona's Courts?
More
than 170 judges sit on the Arizona Superior Court bench, and all were
appointed to their positions through the state's model merit selection
system. Now conservatives in the Arizona legislature want to amend the
constitution to do away with the merit selection system and force all
superior court judges to become politicians.
Retired
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was elected a trial judge
under the old system and later appointed an appellate judge under the
merit selection system. She is now one of the nation's most respected
advocates for merit selection, stating of Arizona's shift, "I watched
the improvement of the judiciary in that state," and adding "If I could
wave a magic wand ... I would wave it to secure some kind of merit
selection of judges across the country."
Read
this Newsweek article--the first in a series called "Court
Watch"--about what happens when judges must run for a seat on the bench
in elections where the stakes are high and big-money-special-interests
play hardball.
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