The editorial board at the San Antonio Express-News is calling for a change in Texas’s judicial selection. Texas currently uses partisan elections to select judges, but the editorial board believes that politics and money play too large a role in the process. In addition to worrying about politicizing the judiciary, the editorial condemns the fact that: “judges also are forced to solicit campaign contributions, and the only people who care enough to contribute to a judicial race most likely have or will have business before the court.” It notes former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s position against judicial elections as well as the fact that many judges acknowledge the public’s “discomfort” with the money involved in the system.
The editorial goes on to encourage the Texas legislature to adopt merit selection. We agree that the combined appointive and elective elements of merit selection provide the best means of ensuring fair and impartial courts. The public deserves a judiciary it can be confident in, not one tied up in politics and money. Judges have a unique position, and should be insulated from the campaigning and fundraising that accompany elections.
