Maryland Lawyer Blog

Why spend so much energy to attempt to solve a non-problem, or worse, advocate for changes that institute entirely new and potentially very large problems? 99+% of circuit court judges are reelected, most by the largest of margins that make Obama’s look tiny. And our legislature has recognized the great importance of such elections, including educating the public and giving the public some small measure of input into the judicial system. In every instance in which a judge was unseated, there were a “perfect storm” of issues, and the people had expressed through their vote a very small measure of control. The judges elected in those instances were extremely qualified, and it is only a shame that some also-qualified judges were not elected at that time. But in every instance I know of where a judge was not elected, they went on to great success at the court of appeals or a re-appointment in a similar position. The Supreme Court’s White decision you cite in your other piece was entirely based on history (all judges used to be elected before bar associations began in the early 1900s and began to change it) and the role of judges, in that they have such tremendous impact in every aspect of people’s lives and also have a role in public policy and yes, making law. The “alternatives” you cite (judicial selection by lawyers and dictator-style up or down votes) simply make things worse by diminishing the status and respect of the legal system (people understand democracy and politics, but do not these other strange jumble of systems). Finally, almost every single judge who according to your blog “we can all agree are awful” were selected by a judicial panel of mostly lawyers, appointed by a governor and ultimately elected by the people without controversy. Would an alternative system improve the qualifications of the judges? Would an alternative system help them after they were seated on the bench? Would an alternative system help to get rid of them when their diminished capacity or faults are proven on the bench? I think the answer is no.