Litigation

Opinion Confuses Tennessee Debate

Posted on March 31, 2009
Attempts to end Tennessee’s system of appointing appellate judges have encountered a signfiicant snag. According to a news article, the state attorney general said judicial vacancies can’t be filled unless the legislature passes new laws laying out how judicial elections will be held...

links for 2009-03-31

Posted on March 31, 2009
For Supreme Court: merit reform– WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports-Wis. Supreme court candidates have final debate Gay marriage supporters follow Vt. governor The Associated Press: Gay marriage effort shifts back to New England Chattanooga Times Free Press | Legal opinion says ending Tennessee Plan for appellate judges could create problems

links for 2009-03-28

Posted on March 28, 2009
judgesonmerit.org » Indiana Bar President: Change the Way Judges are Selected West Virginia Record | Court grants AP's appeal over Maynard's e-mails The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports - Business - High court denies Massey brief filing in Harman case  Koschnick asks Abrahamson to join call for taking down ad - JSOnline Special interest activity starts [...

links for 2009-03-27

Posted on March 27, 2009
New York Lawmakers Agree to Repeal ?70s-Era Drug Laws - NYTimes.com judgesonmerit.org » Tennessee Judges Praise Merit Selection System Koschnick campaign responds to independent attack ad - JSOnline The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times : Justice Ginsburg on Life on the Supreme Court Alan Page talks about impartial judiciary, education, change : Local : Times Record News Alabama House [...

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Alabama Rejects Bills for Nonpartisan Elections

Posted on March 27, 2009
The Alabama Legislature has voted down two bills that would remove politics from judicial elections, according to a report by the Associate Press. The bills would have created nonpartisan elections and limited campaign contributions for appellate judge candidates...

Tennessee Judges Urge State to Keep Merit Selection

Posted on March 27, 2009
Choose Judges on Merit, the blog of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, have marked this article in the Triangle Business Journal. As the Tennessee Legislature debates whether to retain merit selection, appellate court judges, such as Justice William Koch, support the system: ??[We] believe in merit selection as an appropriate, effective and efficient way to select and [...

links for 2009-03-26

Posted on March 26, 2009
Liberal group's ad attacks Supreme Court candidate — chicagotribune.com Judges for sale - The Boston Globe Judge Keller files response to charges | Austin Legal Wisconsin Law Journal - DCBA members pick Abrahamson as most qualified Accused Qaeda Sleeper Agent in Court - NYTimes...

Editorial Calls for Recusal in Caperton

Posted on March 26, 2009
As the nation awaits a decision on Caperton v. Massey, a Boston Globe editorial is calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to ?slow a dismaying trend toward the auctioning off of judgeships by deep-pocketed special interests.? Although Massachusetts practices gubernatorial appointments, 39 states elect their judges in ?campaigns that are as bare-knuckled and richly financed as [...

Texas Judge Responds to Impeachment Charges

Posted on March 26, 2009
A Texas judge has responded to charges she violated her judicial duties by refusing to keep her office open after business hours for a late execution appeal. According to an article in the Austin American-Statesman, Sharon Keller (right), presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, denied the charges being considered by the State Commission [...

First Ad Attack in Wisconsin Supreme Court Race

Posted on March 26, 2009
A liberal group?s advertisement has struck the first blow in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, an article in the Chicago Tribune reports. With two weeks to go before the election, the Greater Wisconsin Committee released a TV ad attacking Jefferson County Circuit Judge Randy Koschnick (left), who is challenging Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson (right)...

links for 2009-03-25

Posted on March 25, 2009
judgesonmerit.org » Pennsylvania is Talking about Judges and Money STATE SUPREME COURT RACE Q&A: SHIRLEY ABRAHAMSON Ariz. chief justice to retire at end of June The Associated Press: Court says US asked detainee to drop torture claim JURIST - Paper Chase: White House to release Bush administration interrogation memos: report JURIST - Paper Chase: Obama: Guantanamo policies must accord with [...

links for 2009-03-24

Posted on March 24, 2009
JURIST - Paper Chase: Federal court denies military contractor motion to dismiss Abu Ghraib torture suit New pressure in Uighurs? cases | SCOTUSblog Obama challenged anew on detention | SCOTUSblog Putting Guantanamo to good use - The Boston Globe The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times : Federal Caseloads Rose Modestly in 2008 The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times [...

links for 2009-03-21

Posted on March 21, 2009
Obama Talks up Comprehensive Immigration Reform | NDN Blog The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times : Judge Michel Offers Views on Federal Circuit Judicial Nominees New Abrahamson ad touts foreclosure test program - JSOnline judgesonmerit.org » ABA President Decries Judicial Elections

links for 2009-03-20

Posted on March 20, 2009
Judge Denies Bail to al-Marri - TalkLeft: The Politics Of Crime Should Empathy Be a Standard for Judging a Judge? — Legal Blog Watch Sentencing Law and Policy: Are a lot more new federal judgeships in the works? Is the ABA Biased Against Conservative Judicial Nominees? A Study Says Yes - Law Blog - WSJ The BLT: The Blog [...

Revised Code of Conduct for United States Judges

Posted on March 20, 2009
Earlier this week, the Judicial Conference of the United States adopted a revised Code of Conduct for United States Judges. A summary of the revisions can be found here. A table cross-referencing the Codes can be found here. The Code of Conduct contains rules (called “cannons”) and commentary that govern the behavior of United States circuit [...

Harassment and Threats Against Judges Rising

Posted on March 19, 2009
The United States Marshals Service has released data showing a steady increase in threats, harassment and other inappropriate communications with judges. According to the National Law Journal, in just five years the number has risen 89 percent. Federal law sanctions threats against judges, along with the intentional release of personal information with the intent to threaten, [...

links for 2009-03-19

Posted on March 19, 2009
JURIST - Paper Chase: Federal judge criticizes Senate for politicizing confirmation process judgesonmerit.org » Looking at the Money Trail in Luzerne County ImmigrationProf Blog: Latino Pressure on Obama for Reform Have Opinion, Will Travel: Will smartphones bring the judicial system down? The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times : White House Reiterates Value of Empathy in Judges The BLT: The [...

New legislation requiring judicial recusal due to campaign contributions.

Posted on March 19, 2009
. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on the question of state judicial recusal requirements in Caperton v. Massey earlier this month. At issue, whether campaign contributions or expenditures on behalf of a judicial candidate are sufficient to mandate as a matter of due process a judge or justice recuse from a case...

JAS Director Urges Reforms in Illinois

Posted on March 18, 2009
Bert Brandenburg, director of Justice at Stake, testified Tuesday before Illinois legislators, urging that they approve public financing, as well as tougher disclosure laws to reveal special interest spending, to reduce the potential conflicts caused by free-spending state court elections...

links for 2009-03-18

Posted on March 18, 2009
The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times : Obama Announces First Judicial Nominee The Associated Press: Old cases may mean new trials for Gitmo detainees Disclosure sought in state Supreme Court elections | greenbaypressgazette.com | Green Bay Press-Gazette CQ Politics | Legal Beat - Judicial Nominations Coming Soon Spivey & Thompson: The problem with merit selection of judges

Obama Names First Judicial Nominee

Posted on March 18, 2009
President Obama has named U.S. District Court Judge David F. Hamilton as his pick to fill a vacancy on the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Hamilton has served on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana since his appointment to the bench by President Clinton in 1994...

Major Report Featuring Civil Justice System Solutions Released

Posted on March 18, 2009
The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) at the University of Denver - a Justice At Stake partner - recently released a major report featuring proposed Principles to improve the U.S. civil justice system.   You also can learn more about this report in an Associated Press article posted on the New York Times web site, as [...

links for 2009-03-17

Posted on March 17, 2009
The Associated Press: Ohio court will take your case if you supply paper Experience wanted for judge jobs - al.com Obama Slow to Repudiate Bush in Race, Terrorism Court Cases - Bloomberg.com judgesonmerit.org » Chief Justice of Texas Comes Out Strong for Merit Selection ACSBlog: The Blog of the American Constitution Society: "Enemy Combatants" No More ACSBlog: The Blog of [...

Another Echo of FDR Era?

Posted on March 17, 2009
Will President Obama face the same kind of standoff with a conservative federal report that frustrated Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s? That provocative question is posed by Newsweek writer Michael Waldman in his article, “A Brewing Court Battle...

Columns Urge Retention of Tennessee Plan

Posted on March 17, 2009
Tennessee should keep its current system of appointing appellate judges, a Nashville Tennessean editorial has declared, saying that ”when it comes to naming state appellate court judges, including those on the state Supreme Court, Tennessee has a better way...

LA Times Reports on Obama?s Judicial Influence in CA

Posted on March 16, 2009
   The LA Times wrote yesterday about the upcoming opportunity President Obama has to shape the federal judiciary in California.  The president will be naming six new judges for that state, and many will be looking to see if he honors his campaign promises to select judges in a bipartisan manner and name judges with “empathy” [...

Op-Ed Urges Reform in Michigan

Posted on March 16, 2009
In an excellent column in the Lansing State Journal, Rich Robinson discusses Caperton v. Massey, the U.S. Supreme Court case on special interest money and elected courts,  and asks this question: “What does this mean to Michiganders? Plenty.” As Rich, who is director of Justice at Stake partner Michigan Campaign Finance Network, notes: In 2008, we witnessed a [...

links for 2009-03-14

Posted on March 14, 2009
Big Money Blog: Special Interest Control Of Another Court Election, With A Twist judgesonmerit.org » Praising Merit Selection in Tennessee U.S. opposes torture lawsuit | SCOTUSblog Senate Confirms David Ogden as Deputy Attorney General - TalkLeft: The Politics Of Crime

Texas Chief Justice Champions Merit Selection

Posted on March 13, 2009
?We must eliminate cynicism, money and partisanship in judicial selection,? Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson (right) declared in an opinion column in The Dallas Morning News. Echoing a recent address before the Texas Legislature, Jefferson argued for merit selection, using his own career as an example of flawed judicial elections...

TV Ads Unveiled in Wisconsin

Posted on March 13, 2009
The Wisconsin Supreme Court race is heating up. In the last week, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and challenger Judge Randy Koschnick have released campaign ads in order to boost interest and support for their respective campaigns. Abrahamson?s ad falls in line with the more traditional approach for State Supreme Court TV ads, discussing her record and [...

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