Litigation

JAS Capitol Briefing: Fair Courts ?Under Attack?

By Peter Hardin

Impartial courts across America are under unprecedented attack, leaders and partners of the Justice at Stake Campaign warned at a Congressional briefing Friday.

The national, nonpartisan campaign held a briefing entitled “Justice for Sale? The Battle for America’s Courts,” its first briefing ever on Capitol Hill dealing with state court issues.

The campaign presented human faces reflecting both the battle by special interests to influence the courts and the struggle of activists and reformers to keep the courts fair and impartial.

“I have experienced the devastation and destruction” that big-money special interest spending causes in judicial elections and  the courts, a somber Hugh Caperton told the audience. A businessman, he was the plaintiff in Caperton v. Massey, a landmark Supreme Court case that highlighted nationally the threat posed by special interest spending in judicial elections (see Gavel Grab for background).

Judge Wanda Bryant of the North Carolina Court of Appeals described herself as a staunch advocate for the state’s public financing system for appeals court judges. She has run in elections both without public financing, and with it, and she prefers the latter for the way “it helps promote judicial independence” and “to reduce the appearance of impropriety” that can come with large campaign donations.

Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia, who co-hosted the event, praised Justice at Stake’s “tremendous mission.” In his introductory remarks, he said, “An impartial judiciary is the hallmark of our legal system.”

Other speakers  documented both the threat to an impartial judiciary of soaring special interest spending, and an array of reforms to combat the threat. They included Bert Brandenburg, JAS executive director; other JAS staff; Seth Andersen, executive director of the American Judicature Society; and Adam Skaggs, counsel, the Brennan Center for Justice.

To learn more about issues for the state courts, and possible reforms, check out Justice at Stake’s issues page on the topic.

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 28, 2011 (boomark / email).