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How do legal professionalism and politics influence efforts to structure the process of selecting and retaining state judges?
List of contents
1. Introduction. The challenges of judicial selection and retention in the states; 2. North Carolina: partisanship in the extreme; 3. Arkansas: third time was the charm; 4. West Virginia: change and chaos; 5. Tennessee: unconstraining the Governor's choice of appellate judges; 6. Georgia: nonpartisan elections as part of court modernization; 7. Mississippi: a complex of factors; 8. Utah: the two step; 9. New Mexico: finding its own unique approach; 10. Connecticut, Rhode Island, and South Carolina: adding 'merit' to nonelective systems; 11. Florida and South Dakota: unsuccessful efforts to extend the Missouri Plan; 12. Nevada and Ohio: voters say no to the Missouri Plan; 13. Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, and New Hampshire: talk, talk, talk, but no results; 14. Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma: unsuccessful efforts to end 'merit' nominating commissions; 15. Conclusion: what do we want in our judges?
About the author
Herbert M. Kritzer is the Marvin J. Sonosky Chair of Law and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota Law School. He is the author or coauthor of eight previous books, including Justices on the Ballot (Cambridge, 2015), and more than 100 articles or book chapters.
Summary
What drives the process of how states select and retain judges? Using twenty-two detailed case studies, Kritzer examines how the competing goals of legal professionalism and politics influence decisions on choosing state court judges. This book will appeal to anyone interested in judicial and state politics, public policy, and law.
Additional text
'In this book, Kritzer brings his usual, trenchant, clear-eyed analysis to bear on the baffling, and seemingly directionless course of state judicial selection reform in the aftermath of the merit selection movement. An exceptional work – and essential reading for anyone who cares about how America picks its judges.' Charles Gardner Geyh, John F. Kimberling Professor of Law, Indiana University, and author of Who is to Judge? The Perennial Debate Over Whether to Elect or Appoint America's Judges
