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February 02, 2006

The More You Know

Speaking of judges, here's what one of my favorites had to say about Arkansas' current judical code of ethics, which prohibit a judicial candidate from expressing his or her political views.

"No serious, thinking person reasonably believes that a judge actually has no views or values or beliefs at all," Griffen said, and any judicial candidate projecting himself as being without preconceived beliefs has "demonstrated they are incompetent."

Quite. Judges are, after all, people too. The best ones try to not let their personal beliefs affect their judgments. And after all, the more one knows about a judge, the better one can fine-tune his or her arguments and evidence to the court to more effective present a case. A judge's political leanings may only be a small part of this, but it is still helpful information.

It's also helpful information when electing someone to a judgeship. Judicial elections here are non-partisan, which too often leads to a choice between two names, neither of which one knows much about. Or as Judge Griffen puts it,

"A judicial election should be more than a glamour contest between or among comparably attired lawyers who basically go around trying to have good breath and little body odor," he said.

Heh. Ayup.

Posted by Rita at February 2, 2006 07:20 AM

Comments

The fact that such basic good sense is even being debated bothers me, but the ridiculousness of opposition argument is appalling. "... the public may lose confidence in judges who express specific beliefs." Or, "They worry ... about the likely possibliity that voters will hold jurists accountable for their views." The perspective from which both worries stem seems both alien and juvenile to me. In fact, it bothers me considerably that some students at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service seem to be embracing/promoting deception as a necessity for elected judges (officials). What have we taught our children?

Posted by: kenneth [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 2, 2006 05:53 PM

The whole idea of apolitical judges dates back to the formalistic idea that judges should only base their decisions on logic and the law. Personal views and/or beliefs were to be totally ignored and surpressed....which sounds silly to us because we both know humans don't work that way.

It seems to me children are being taught that deception is necessary in all manner of schools. Necessary, and perfectly moral. Or at least it seemed like that when my kids were in school. And not just in schools, but from our entire culture. That's a very bad thing....which we will all pay the price for eventually.

Posted by: Rita [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 3, 2006 10:10 AM