Editorial: Judges

Nasty Supreme Court race was good case for nonpartisan elections

The Register-Herald, November 10, 2004

The messy matchup for Supreme Court between Democratic Justice Warren McGraw and Charleston lawyer Brent Benjamin, the Republican victor, is Exhibit A in the argument for nonpartisan election of judges. Should judicial elections be conducted this way? The answer, obviously, is no.

Trust in the courts begins with confidence in our judges. No one can seriously contend that this most recent Supreme Court election gives the ordinary citizen confidence in the court system.

In West Virginia , Supreme Court justices - as well as magistrates and judges - are elected along party lines. That desperately needs changed. The vagaries of judicial campaigns, including the need to raise campaign funds, and the irrelevance of party affiliation in selecting good judges make judicial elections problematic.

Thankfully, a State Bar committee will soon proceed with the hotly debated study of whether West Virginia should change the way it selects its judicial branch. State Bar President Charles Love III had earlier agreed to have the 16-lawyer panel hold off its review until after the election. The committee's chairman, John P. Bailey, hopes to schedule its first meeting in December.

"We will be sending out materials for all of our people to review," Bailey said late last week. "We would like to wrap everything up by spring."

The merits of nonpartisan judges are many, as we've pointed out before. For example, in reviewing its state's history of judicial selection, The Anchorage Press wrote, "In 1955, the 55 delegates to Alaska 's Constitutional Convention decided judges should not hold allegiances to the powerful politicians of the day. Their decision to appoint judges who are not beholden to any politician or political party has irritated politicians ever since.

"Our instincts tell us that if our system irritates politicians, we probably should not change it."

Like Alaska and many other states, West Virginia can take a giant step forward by electing justices who legislate through their judgments, not their political prejudice. And, hopefully, clean up unseemly election campaigns in the process.