Gavel Grab

An Iowa Republican who served as House Speaker suggests that voters who are upset because same-sex marriage is permitted in the state should blame the legislature, and not the state Supreme Court.

Some conservative leaders and the Iowa GOP chairman have called for ouster of Justice David Wiggins in a retention election this year, in reaction to a state Supreme Court ruling in 2009 that permitted same-sex couples to marry.

But former Speaker Christopher Rants (photo) parts ways with those critics. He writes in a Sioux City Journal op-ed that advocates had concern Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act would be struck down, as it ultimately was, but there was not enough support in the legislature to pass a constitutional amendment to define marriage.

“Today’s outrage” over the 2009 ruling “rings hollow,” Rants contends.  He adds that while opposing same-sex marriage, he plans to vote to retain Justice Wiggins, and that anger at the court is misplaced:

“Courts and judges make for easy political foils. They rarely engage in the political shouting match, so they remain defenseless. They don’t buy radio ads explaining their decision, and 99.9 percent of the public doesn’t read them. Their opponents can say anything no matter how outrageous and they will be impassive. They have no Super PACs.  Read more

Tags: Iowa

On Monday, New York Justice Randall Eng was appointed to lead the Second Department of the Appellate Division.  With this appointment, Eng will become the first Asian-American Presiding Justice in New York’s history.

In his official announcement, Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was “pleased to appoint Justice Eng to serve as New York’s first Asian-American Presiding Justice and lead one of the busiest appellate courts in the country.”

Eng, impressed by the scholarship and work ethic of the Second Department, looks to bring efficiency and consistency to the court, reports a New York Law Journal article.

“I hope to bring a greater efficiency to the operations of the court in harnessing the exceptional resources we have and applying them to the very substantial number of cases we receive,” said Eng.

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Tags: New York

North Carolina voters focusing on the presidential and gubernatorial elections may ignore the candidates running for the state Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals. About 25 percent of the public who voted in 2008 and 2010 didn’t cast a vote in the Supreme Court race, an Associated Press article reports.

“A 25 percent dropoff rate from all the other races, it’s worrisome,” said Court of Appeals Judge Linda McGee at a recent judicial debate. “You want people to be as informed as possible in trying to make their determinations and decisions, but you don’t want them overlooking judges.”

Brent Laurenz, executive director for the North Carolina Center for Voter Education says that “many newcomers to the state may not realize North Carolina judges are chosen in elections.” The Center for Voter Education is a Justice at Stake partner group.

There are currently eight judicial candidates on the ballot, all of whom are using the state’s public financing program to fund their campaigns.

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Tags: North Carolina

As opposing sides delivered punches in a Florida Supreme Court retention campaign, a group that has targeted three justices released a critical new web video, while groups representing police and firefighters blasted increasing politicization of the courts.

In the two-minute video, Restore Justice 2012 ridiculed a ruling by the state Supreme Court in a 2003 murder case that also drew fire recently from the Republican Party of Florida, according to a Miami Herald report. The newspaper pointed out that when the three justices were up for retention (yes-or-no) election in 2006, the GOP did not oppose keeping them on the bench, as the GOP is now doing.

Meanwhile representatives of the Fraternal Order of Police and Florida Professional Fire Fighters said the Republican Party push to oust the three justices chips away at the firewall that should protect the courts from politics, a Florida Times-Union article reported.

Another group that has unveiled advertising critical of the court is Americans for Prosperity, founded by the billionaire Koch brothers. In the Miami Herald, columnist Carl Hiaasen derided the effort as a transparent ploy to dump three judges so Republican Gov. Rick Scott could pick their successors and “pack the Supreme Court.”

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Tags: Florida

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• Recent judicial scandals may cause Pennsylvania to toughen up its reinstatement standards, suggests a Pennsylvania Post-Gazette article. While there have been no supporting numbers thus far, professional liability attorney Alan B. Epstein believes the damage to public trust caused by recent scandals has lead to “a greater amount of disciplinary verve” when it comes to reinstating suspended and disbarred lawyers.
• Pennsylvania’s voter ID law will not go into effect this election, ruled Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson. According to a New York Times article, Simpson found that the state’s efforts were insufficient to ensure that every voter would have access to a valid ID in time for the election. While voters may still be asked to produce a voter ID, they will not be kept from voting if they do not have one.
• On Monday, Judge Carl E. Stewart took office as the first black chief judge of the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.  According to an Associated Press article, Stewart succeeded Judge Edith H. Jones, who stepped down from the post.

Mississippi State Rep. Earle Banks (far left in photo) and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. (second from the left) differ widely in their campaign methods. Banks is running against Waller in the Nov. 6 election, and says his campaign will not accept money from political action committees even if Waller does, an Associated Press article reports.

“Now, I can’t get any money from PACs, ’cause I think he’s got it all,” Banks said during a debate in Jackson. “With no disrespect, there’s a lot of PAC money been going around, and it’s not for Earle Banks. And that’s fine.”

Waller has been on the bench since 1996, and he did not instruct his campaign to turn away PAC money, the article says.

“The truth of the matter is as long as we have elections, you’ve got to pay for the elections and contributions is how you do it,” Waller said. “So, I don’t know how you go about it without making it available to everyone. I’m sure they’re following the rules, wherever the limits are that are applicable to it.”

Banks admitted to accepting PAC campaign contributions during legislative elections. Recent campaign filing reports show that Banks currently has $13,840 for his campaign while Waller has $71,304 on hand.

Mississippi judicial candidates run without party labels, but both have been endorsed by a major political party, the article reports. Banks called the state’s nonpartisan judicial elections “a farce.”

Tags: Mississippi

As the Supreme Court begins its new term, its justices have a “major bit of unfinished business” that ought to be getting more attention, Common Cause president Bob Edgar says. The business: Addressing the court’s own ethics.

Edgar calls in a Huffington Post commentary for the high court to adopt the code of judicial conduct that governs lower federal court judges. It is not a new topic (see Gavel Grab) but one that Edgar, in the height of election season, says still warrants confronting:

“Several members of the court have declared publicly that they follow the Code, but they and Chief Justice John Roberts have resisted calls that the court formally adopt it and create a mechanism to enforce it. Each justice is thus left to his or her own decisions about when he or she should be disqualified — recused — from a case, or how openly he or she can be associated with political issues or candidates.”

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The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of Minnesota’s restrictions on fundraising and endorsements by judicial candidates.

As a result, the high court left intact rules that bar judicial candidates from endorsing candidates for elective office and from directly soliciting campaign money given by individuals and small groups.

The high court refused to hear an appeal sought by Gregory Wersal, according to an Associated Press article. He who has run for the Minnesota Supreme Court and who has challenged the restrictions since 1996 (see Gavel Grab).

In another action on Monday, the Supreme Court denied an appeal of a  challenge to part of  Iowa’s merit-selection process for choosing state Supreme Court justices.

Four Iowa residents, represented by Indiana attorney James Bopp, challenged  the makeup of the nominating commission that screens candidates for Iowa’s Supreme Court, and it sought to stop the commission’s seven lawyer members from helping to pick finalists to replace three justices whom voters had ousted in November 2010.

The lawsuit contended the nominating commission afforded too much influence to lawyers, and said it was unconstitutional because ordinary citizens did not have a say in appointing those seven lawyer members, who were elected by members of the Iowa State Bar Association.

A lower court and the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the challenge (see Gavel Grab), and the nation’s highest court refused on Monday to hear an appeal, according to LegalNewsline.com.

Tags: Iowa, Minnesota

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Gorman Houston has put his support behind Robert Vance, Democratic candidate for state Supreme Court,  “in a big way,” reports the Associated Press. Houston, a Republican, supported Republican candidate Roy Moore in 2000; Moore’s actions when they served together in 2003 prevent Houston from being able to support Moore’s bid for reelection, he says.
• The upcoming North Carolina state Supreme Court election could bring the court under Democratic control. According to a Daily Advance op-ed, although candidates no longer run with a party affiliation next to their name, “the money pouring into the race is and will continue to look partisan.”
• Alabama Supreme Court candidate Roy Moore asserts that the next Chief Justice will have to make the legislature understand that the courts need more money. According to an Anniston Star article, Moore stressed a need for the judiciary to be seen as a “branch of government,” and not just an “agency of the Legislature” after a speech Sunday evening.
• Frank J. Daily, the newest appointee to the Wisconsin Judicial Commission, called the case against Supreme Court Justice David Prosser unfair, according to a Journal Sentinel article.  Daily, who has spoken out in support of Prosser and against Chief Justice Abrahamson, calls himself a “fair and objective guy,” who can remain impartial in his new position.
• An Ohio poll shows that two of three Democratic candidates Ohio Supreme Court race hold narrow leads, according to the Columbus Dispatch. But the latest Dispatch poll shows that while 51 percent of Ohio voters plan to cast their ballot for President Obama, the majority still are undecided when it comes to filling the Supreme Court.