Litigation

Elections Off Again in Tennessee

By Charlie Hall

Tennessee’s struggle to replace its old judicial nominating commissions is taking on the twists and turns  of a Victorian melodrama. In the latest update, Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey, left, a Republican who has led efforts to remove the  old system, appears to have dropped his own recent proposal to elect appellate and Supreme Court judges.

Instead, Senate Republicans are pushing a bill to create a new, modified nominating system that gives greater power to both legislative leaders and the governor. But appointed judges would still face retention elections, in which only the incumbent’s name appears on the ballot and voters decide with whether to keep or replace them.

The newest development, described in articles by the Memphis Commercial Appeal and by The Associated Press, has critics on both sides. A Nashville Tennessean editorial urges that the current system be preserved, while right-wing blogs were angry that Ramsey, considered a leading candidate in the next gubernatorial election, hasn’t scrapped the state’s system of nominating commissions and retention elections.

Critics say the plan violates Tennessee’s constitution and that lawyers’ groups dominate the nominating commission.

Ramsey explains his reasoning in a Nashville Tennesseean op-ed. Saying the old system was dominated by special interests, he notes that legislative leaders would pick all members of the new nominating commission, without restriction by state lawyers’ groups, and that the governor could simply pick his own nominee if he or she disliked the first six nominees submitted by the panel. Finally, any judge ousted in a retention election would be replaced through a subsequent competitive election.

The Tennessean also ran a rebuttal op-ed supporting the current system, by former Tennessee Chief Justice E. Riley Anderson, who said of Tennessee’s system:

The plan has been praised nationwide and is the envy of other states.

Why change it? Where is the scandal? Has it produced bad judges? Most knowledgeable people agree that our appellate judges are excellent and fairly represent both political parties.

Full post as published by The Gavel on May 13, 2009 (boomark / email).