Governor Matt Bevin is correct that the election of judges is not good. However, his reasoning is wrong. Almost every judge I have encountered is a good judge, and I have never encountered a judge “who ha[d] no business” being on the bench. More importantly, I have known many lawyers who would make great judges but were not willing to go thru the rigors and sacrifices of a lengthy campaign to get elected. Time from family and work. This I do know from personal experience when I ran some years ago.
It is a question of getting the best, not just the good. And the reason that is is so hard to do is that the rigors of running winnow out so many worthy possibilities.
Let us not forget that Louisville’s own Justice Louis Brandeis was appointed and had a difficult time getting approved by the Senate. He would never have opted to run, much less get elected. And the way things are today, he would most probably have been “Borked” and not approved by the Senate, much less even nominated. As it was, the Brandeis nomination resulted in the very first Senate Hearing on a SCOTUS nominee and it took four months to finally get his nomination through. Wow, and look what partisan vetting we have now (which may be a good or a bad). Yet, Justice Brandeis was one of the most respected and brilliant justices to have served on our nation’s highest court. His omission from our roster of justices would have been a monumental travesty. The Times even did an about face and reported “The retirement of Justice Brandeis takes from the bench of the Supreme Court one of the great judges of our times,” it said, lauding Brandeis as a Justice who “has regarded the Constitution as no iron straitjacket, but a garment that must fit each generation.”
I have always advocated the position we need competent judicial SELECTION (governor appoints and legislature approves) rather than judicial ELECTION (which is expensive, painful, and confusing to the voters not to mention a hardship on families and friends). It is not befitting the office for a judicial candidate to pony up so much money for their campaign and go dunning for money from the lawyers who will eventually appear in front of him/her.
Knowing the qualifications and competence of those running for judge may work in small counties where folks know everyone, but for crying out loud it is a mess in Jefferson County.
The goal for our justice system should simply be to get the best, the brightest, and most competent justice and judges. Partisan races with sums expended that amply exceed a judge’s salary are unseemly for the office and ill-suited (in my humble opinion). I also believe campaigning is not well-received by citizens who know little of the person, the requirements of the office, and perceive a bias.
However, this was addressed some years ago, and it seems the public disfavored changing the Constitution accordingly. But that was a few decades ago, and things may have changed now.
As for Attorney General, I know I am definitely in the minority on this, but I believe he/she should be nominated by the Governor and approved by one of the Houses (Senate) of the General Assembly. It should NOT be set up as a base of operations for running for governor and causing a running battle and loss of effective leadership with running the government. An attorney general whom the governor trusts who is competent and has been vetted during the appointment process would be a positive step and have more influence than what we have now which is an AG who is always poking and trying to embarrass the governor whether than working with the governor to reach accommodation to do the right thing for the Commonwealth. Worse yet, the AG’s advice or suggestions seem to come after the fact and probably would have been ignored in the first place. A trusted advisor would have a better tempering effect on legal implications of some executive actions which are ill-advised at best or unconstitutional at worst.
Just my two cents.
Here is a link to the Herald Leader’s story.
http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article173325431.html