“I am concerned by the public’s perception that money in judicial races influences outcomes.” “Polls asking about this perception find that more than 80 percent of those questioned believe contributions influence a judge’s decision.” “Justice must be blind – it must be as blind to party affiliation as to the litigant’s social or financial status. The rule of law resonates across party lines.”
The Chief Justice is recommending that we do away with elections of judges and let the governor or some other politician decide who should become judges. I disagree. Texans are independent, strong and smart. We do not want anyone deciding what is best for us,especially some politician. It doesn't matter to me if it is a Democrat, Republican or Independent that would be the appointing the judge, in my opinion it is wrong. It is strange that this argument only comes up when one party senses that the other could sweep elections and get rid of those elected. I have seen excellent judges from both parties voted out of offices simply because they had a D or R designation and it would be good to do stop that, but doing away with elections is not the way.
I couldn't agree more with the Chief Justice that something should be done to stop the influence of money in decisions, but the solution is not to do away with electing judges. A better solution is to provide information to the public regarding the judges, their voting records, where they get their contributions and money and finally do away with party designation on the ballots or election materials.
If the Supreme Court truly wants to do away with the perception of money influencing their decisions, here are a few suggestions: 1st turn over all financial records relating to who has contributed to you in any manner, 2nd stop pandering to those whose purpose is to do away with the justice system, 3rd try defending the justice and jury system which holds people and corporations accountable for their actions instead of finding/creating new ways to excuse their actions.
In the next few weeks I will be looking at the some of the Supreme Court decisions over the last decade or so and present some issues and see what you would decide and compare it to what was actually decided by the Court. As always I welcome any and all comments and opinions, let me hear from you.
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