Legal Ethics
Dubious Judicial Campaign Attacks Prompt Public Forum on Fair Courts
Posted Jul 14, 2008, 02:08 pm CDT
By Martha Neil
A commission appointed by the chief justice of California's supreme court is holding a public forum on fair courts today, in an effort to dial down the rude rhetoric and dubious tactics that has characterized some recent judicial campaigns.
The forum in the state capital, Preserving Impartial Courts in California (PDF), features as panelists two former California governors, Republican Pete Wilson and Democrat Gray Davis.
It is intended to address "a national wave of unfair attacks on the judicial branch" that "threatens to weaken our democracy and jeopardize every individual's right to equal access to justice," the forum program states.
Early warning signs of the problem in Southern California, according to panelist and professor Laurie Levenson of Loyola Law School, include apparent efforts to unseat trial judges with Hispanic-sounding names, reports the National Law Journal.
"In Georgia, former Attorney General John Ashcroft recorded an automated phone call saying an incumbent judge was a 'liberal activist' who would 'stop at nothing to win,' according to a 2007 Brennan Center for Justice report," the article also notes.
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Comments
Posted by J.D. - 1 month, 3 weeks, 2 days, 23 hours, 22 minutes ago
Unfortunately, many judges have become quite activist in my neck of the woods (California). So it’s only natural that people are going to apply the term “activist” or “radical.”
Judges who stick to the constitution can simply point to the constitution as protection. Once you get outside that, you’re going to be critiqued.
Posted by Esq. - 1 month, 3 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours, 13 minutes ago
Martha, CA’s CJ is up for retention election in 2009. He remembers when Rose Bird and the Coo Coo Court got tossed out. He is just out self appropriating the taxpayer’s money to try and avoid getting the axe for his judicial legislation. The so-called race baiting attacks are nothing more than convenient Red Herring.