Should judges be elected? While federal judges are appointed (and enjoy lifetime tenure), a number of states (like Texas and California) force judges to either run for election (to join the bench) or for a “retention election” (to stay on the bench).
No system is perfect. While appointing judges has its flaws, it at least allows for a candidate’s credentials to be scrutinized by several committees — both before and after he or she has been nominated.
But what if judges are elected? Does the normal voter like you or me have the ability or time to examine the credentials of a dozen (or sometimes more) judicial candidates? And since judicial candidates can’t campaign like other candidates (after all, they are not allowed to make promises on how they will rule), does that give candidates with a more mainstream-sounding name an unfair advantage?
Take the case of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sanjay Kumar, an outstanding jurist who has not only excelled as a trial judge, but has been repeatedly invited to “pinch hit” for the California Court of Appeal.
Next month, Judge Kumar (who has been endorsed by the Los Angeles Times) must win a retention election to keep his job, and one other candidate seeks his seat. As it turns out, his opponent (Kim Smith) was rated “not qualified” when he last ran for judge two years back. But that brings up two problems. First, voters might not be aware of Smith’s lack of credentials. Furthermore, they may be reluctant for someone with a “foreign sounding” name.
To be sure, candidates have been elected with “funny names” (see Barack Obama). However, judicial elections are quite a different ball of wax — because hardly any voters have heard of any of the candidates. Making matters even more difficult, LA County judicial candidates must reach 4 million voters — an extremely expensive proposition.
There are no easy answers to this problem. Personally, I would favor (1) giving state judges longer terms, and (2) giving the Legislature and the Governor limited authority not to renew a judge’s term — but only if a judge has acted unprofessionally or abused his or her power.
Meanwhile, AAA-Fund of California strongly endorses Sanjay Kumar for Los Angeles Superior Court. If you live in Los Angeles County, please vote for him on June 5.
– Gautam Dutta



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