Litigation

O?Connor: ?Keep Campaign Cash out of Courtrooms?

By Peter Hardin

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O?Connor took her campaign in support of merit-based selection of state judges to national television audience.

?[W]hat you get these days is large campaign contributions when you have elections,? Justice O?Connor said in a PBS NewsHour interview. ?I don?t think we should have any cash in our courtrooms. It doesn?t belong there.? She has made a top priority of pushing for an end to election-based systems for choosing state judges.

?How can the judge be expected,? she asked, ?to be absolutely fair and impartial if the donor is before him in the court??

Justice O?Connor exclaimed ?hooray!? over the seating on the high court for the first time of three female justices. The important impact may be on public confidence in the court, she suggested. She was the first woman named to sit on the Supreme Court.

?[I]t’s the perception of the public, whether you can rely on the court to do a sensible thing. And you are more apt to if you look there and see something that resembles the public at large,? she said.

The retired jurist acknowledged that she did “not express any enthusiasm” over the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, permitting unlimited political spending by corporations. This response, she said, was “simply because of my concern in the judicial area, particularly about big campaign contributions to elect judges.”

In the context of Citizens United, Justice O’Connor was asked about widespread political spending this year by outside interest groups, with no disclosure of the sources.

Justice O?Connor called the development ?significant? and a ?worry.?  She said, ?We would like to know who’s contributing, wouldn’t we??

When asked if the court had made a mistake, she sidestepped the question and added, “I can only call it a source of serious concern.?

You can learn more by clicking here for Gavel Grab postings about Justice O’Connor’s efforts in support of merit selection of state judges. To learn more about Citizens United, click here to see Justice at Stake’s news release about the decision, mirroring the concerns expressed by Justice O’Connor; or click here to read the JAS amicus brief in the case.

Full post as published by The Gavel on October 15, 2010 (boomark / email).