Judges: Special Interests Stripping Judiciary of Independence (MainJustice)
Sitting and former judges decried what they called a dramatic shift in the country’s judicial independence on the state level in panel at the American Constitutional Society convention Friday.
Special interest groups have started using retention elections to unseat or influence judges by pouring millions of dollars into an election system where judges rarely see campaigning as necessary or proper, the judges said at the liberal group’s annual convention.
“The system has changed,” said former associate justice for the Indiana Supreme Court Myra C. Selby. “It starts not with judges or lawyers, but with the average Joe and his understanding of what the judiciary is all about.”
And the average Joe, many on the panel feared, is unduly influenced by politicians and ideological groups.
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