Standards on State Judicial Selection

Standards on State Judicial Selection PDF

Author: American Bar Association. Commission on State Judicial Selection Standards

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 74

ISBN-13:

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"The Standards on State Judicial Selection were approved by the American Bar Association House of Delegates in July 2000"--Prelim. p.

Judicial Selection in the States

Judicial Selection in the States PDF

Author: Herbert M. Kritzer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-04-30

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1108853684

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Using detailed case studies of the relevant US states, Herbert Kritzer provides an unprecedented examination of the process and politics of how states select and retain judges. The book is organized around the competing goals of politics and professionalism, namely whether the focus in choosing judges should be on future judicial decisions (court outputs) or on the court processes by which those decisions are reached. Or, in considering who should be a judge, whether the emphasis should be on political credentials or on professional credentials. One important finding is that political concerns have surpassed professionalism concerns since 2000. Another is that voters have been more supportive of professionalism in selecting appellate judges than trial judges. Judicial Selection in the States should be read by anyone seeking a deep understanding of the complex interplay between politics and the judiciary at the state level in the United States.

The Selection and Tenure of Judges

The Selection and Tenure of Judges PDF

Author: Evan Haynes

Publisher: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 1584774835

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Haynes, Evan. The Selection and Tenure of Judges. [Newark]: The National Conference of Judicial Councils, 1944. xix, 308 pp. Reprint available January, 2005 by the Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-483-5. Cloth. $85. * With an introduction by Roscoe Pound. Haynes offers a comprehensive overview of the factors that determine judicial selection in the United States. It is also a useful history of the subject from the colonial era to 1943. Written with input from Pound, Haynes offers a sociological analysis enriched with an impressive body of statistical data. He examines such factors as class and region affiliation, and whether elected judges are more liberal than their tenured colleagues. He also compares American practices to those in Great Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia and Latin America. Warmly received when it was first published, it is recommended by Willard Hurst in The Growth of American Law: The Lawmakers (see p. 454).

Judicial Merit Selection

Judicial Merit Selection PDF

Author: Greg Goelzhauser

Publisher:

Published: 2019-02-22

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1439918082

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The judicial selection debate continues. Merit selection is used by a majority of states but remains the least well understood method for choosing judges. Proponents claim that it emphasizes qualifications and diversity over politics, but there is little empirical evidence regarding its performance. In Judicial Merit Selection, Greg Goelzhauser amasses a wealth of data to examine merit selection's institutional performance from an internal perspective. While his previous book, Choosing State Supreme Court Justices, compares outcomes across selection mechanisms, here he delves into what makes merit selection unique--its use of nominating commissions to winnow applicants prior to gubernatorial appointment. Goelzhauser's analyses include a rich case study from inside a nominating commission's proceedings as it works to choose nominees; the use of public records to examine which applicants commissions choose and which nominees governors choose; evaluation of which attorneys apply for consideration and which judges apply for promotion; and examination of whether design differences across systems impact performance in the seating of qualified and diverse judges. The results have critical public policy implications.

The People’s Courts

The People’s Courts PDF

Author: Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2012-02-27

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780674055483

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In the United States, almost 90 percent of state judges have to run in popular elections to remain on the bench. In the past decade, this peculiarly American institution has produced vicious multi-million-dollar political election campaigns and high-profile allegations of judicial bias and misconduct. The People’s Courts traces the history of judicial elections and Americans’ quest for an independent judiciary—one that would ensure fairness for all before the law—from the colonial era to the present. In the aftermath of economic disaster, nineteenth-century reformers embraced popular elections as a way to make politically appointed judges less susceptible to partisan patronage and more independent of the legislative and executive branches of government. This effort to reinforce the separation of powers and limit government succeeded in many ways, but it created new threats to judicial independence and provoked further calls for reform. Merit selection emerged as the most promising means of reducing partisan and financial influence from judicial selection. It too, however, proved vulnerable to pressure from party politics and special interest groups. Yet, as Shugerman concludes, it still has more potential for protecting judicial independence than either political appointment or popular election. The People’s Courts shows how Americans have been deeply committed to judicial independence, but that commitment has also been manipulated by special interests. By understanding our history of judicial selection, we can better protect and preserve the independence of judges from political and partisan influence.

Picking Federal Judges

Picking Federal Judges PDF

Author: Sheldon Goldman

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1999-09-01

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 9780300080735

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How does a president choose the judges he appoints to the lower federal bench? In this analysis, a leading authority on lower federal court judicial selection tells the story of how nine presidents over a period of 56 years have chosen federal judges.

Advice and Dissent

Advice and Dissent PDF

Author: Sarah A. Binder

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2009-12-01

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 0815703910

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For better or worse, federal judges in the United States today are asked to resolve some of the nation's most important and contentious public policy issues. Although some hold onto the notion that federal judges are simply neutral arbiters of complex legal questions, the justices who serve on the Supreme Court and the judges who sit on the lower federal bench are in fact crafters of public law. In recent years, for example, the Supreme Court has bolstered the rights of immigrants, endorsed the constitutionality of school vouchers, struck down Washington D.C.'s blanket ban on handgun ownership, and most famously, determined the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. The judiciary now is an active partner in the making of public policy. Judicial selection has been contentious at numerous junctures in American history, but seldom has it seemed more acrimonious and dysfunctional than in recent years. Fewer than half of recent appellate court nominees have been confirmed, and at times over the past few years, over ten percent of the federal bench has sat vacant. Many nominations linger in the Senate for months, even years. All the while, the judiciary's caseload grows. Advice and Dissent explores the state of the nation's federal judicial selection system—a process beset by deepening partisan polarization, obstructionism, and deterioration of the practice of advice and consent. Focusing on the selection of judges for the U.S. Courts of Appeals and the U.S. District Courts, the true workhorses of the federal bench, Sarah A. Binder and Forrest Maltzman reconstruct the history and contemporary practice of advice and consent. They identify the political and institutional causes of conflict over judicial selection over the past sixty years, as well as the consequences of such battles over court appointments. Advice and Dissent offers proposals for reforming the institutions of judicial selection, advocating pragmatic reforms that seek