George Soros vs. judicial elections

The Washington Times ^ | Sept. 10, 2010 | Dan Pero

[BMC1]

During the past decade, a lavishly funded, highly coordinated campaign has been under way to shift America's judiciary fundamentally to the left by keeping conservative judges off state courts. This campaign is being orchestrated and funded by the Open Society Institute (OSI), the political arm of billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros. According to a study released this week by the American Justice Partnership, OSI has spent at least $45.4 million to promote the so-called merit selection system and reduce the influence of citizens and their elected representatives when it comes to picking judges.

Approximately 95 percent of civil disputes in the United States wind up in state courts, giving the judges who hear these cases enormous influence over our lives, property and business affairs. The authors of our state constitutions recognized the need for a check on this power, which is why 39 states hold some form of judicial elections. The goal was to balance the virtues of independence and accountability in the judiciary by requiring judges to assume office by the consent of the people.

Under "merit" selection, however, the power to select judges is transferred from the people to a small, unelected, unaccountable commission made up primarily of legal elites - and is often stacked with representatives of powerful special-interest groups such as state trial lawyers' associations. The plan is sold as a way to keep politics out of America's courtrooms, but it merely shifts politics to the backrooms where merit selection committees meet outside of public view to determine who will control our courts.

[mas cerveza por favor]

Open Society Institute [...] shifts politics to the backrooms

[BMC1]

Those of us who live in states that allow us to vote for judges need to pay attention to and check out those judges we elect.

[Lazlo in PA]

This idea failed miserably last election in PA. The Conservatives swept state judges slots. Wonder where they are targeting?

[allmost]

A truly vile man, this soros. The foreign exchange rates precarious and destabilized are his most preferred pattern of sucking the fruits of human labor into his pockets. This sounds like a pet project out of boredom for this thing that currently posesses a human body.

[dljordan]

“This sounds like a pet project out of boredom for this thing that currently posesses a human body.”

I think he’s just wearing a human body. He’s actually a reptilian.