We have stake in impartial, nonpartisan judiciary

Excerpting and editing by Carolyn Bennett

Explosion in judicial campaign spending, much of it poured in by ‘super spender’ organizations seeking to sway the courts

Parallel surge of nasty and costly TV ads as a prerequisite to gaining a state Supreme Court seat

Emergence of secretive state and national campaigns to tilt state Supreme Court elections

Litigation about judicial campaigns, some of which could boost special-interest pressure on judges

Growing public concern about the threat to fair and impartial justice—and support for meaningful reforms

The Justice at Stake Campaign, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and the National Institute of Money in State Politics have released a new, critical issues report in the public interest: “The New Politics of Judicial Elections, 2000-2009: Decade of Change”

The report leads, “State judicial elections have been transformed during the past decade. The story of [the United States’] 2000–2009 high court contests—tens of millions of dollars raised by candidates from parties who may appear before them, millions more poured in by interest groups, nasty and misleading ads, and pressure on judges to signal courtroom rulings on the campaign trail—has become the new normal.

“For more than a decade, partisans and special interests of all stripes have been growing more organized in their efforts to use elections to tilt the scales of justice their way. Many Americans have come to fear that justice is for sale.…”

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor writes, “This report, the latest in a series begun in 2000, provides a comprehensive review of the threat posed by money and special interest pressure on fair and impartial courts. . . .

“In too many states, judicial elections are becoming political prizefights where partisans and special interests seek to install judges who will answer to them instead of the law and the Constitution…

“We all have a stake in ensuring that courts remain fair, impartial, and independent.”

Sources and notes
James Sample, Adam Skaggs, Jonathan Blitzer, Linda Casey, and Charles Hall are the authors and editors of “The New Politics of Judicial Elections, 2000-2009: Decade of Change,” August 16, 2010. The Justice at Stake Campaign, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and the National Institute of Money in State Politics report covers not just individual elections but the whole decade [http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/the_new_politics_of_judicial_elections
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, 161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th Floor , New York, NY 10013, brennancenter@nyu.edu].


The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on the fundamental issues of democracy and justice. The work of the center ranges from voting rights to campaign finance reform, racial justice in criminal law to presidential power in the fight against terrorism. The institution describes itself as part think tank, part public interest law firm, part advocacy group, combining scholarship, legislative and legal advocacy, and communications to win meaningful, measurable change in the public sector [http://www.brennancenter.org/pages/about/].