Free Republic

Billionaire George Soros spends tens of millions each year supporting a range of liberal social and political causes, from drug legalization to immigration reform to gay marriage to abolishing the death penalty. But a less well-known Soros priority -- replacing elections for judges with selection-by-committee -- now has critics accusing him of trying to stack the courts. Most non-federal judges around the country are selected by voters in elections. But some states use a process called “merit selection” in which a committee – often made up of lawyers – appoints judges to the bench instead. Soros has spent several million...

Billionaire political financier George Soros is behind a $45 million campaign to strip American citizens of their right to select state court judges and thereby put the legal system in the hands of Left-wing jurists, according to Dan Pero, president of the American Justice Partnership. AJP produced a comprehensive report about the plan and Soros’ financial stake in it. AJP says the movement is using the reformist-sounding name “merit selection” for its plan and that it seeks to end the popular election of state judges and replace the decision of voters with a system that puts political insiders and lawyers...

REVIEW & OUTLOOK The ABA Plots a Judicial Coup August 14, 2008; Page A12 Some bad ideas never seem to die, especially in the hands of a crafty attorney. That's the story now playing out at the American Bar Association, which voted at its annual meeting this week to endorse a version of "merit selection" for federal judges. What we have here is the latest lawyer-led attempt to strip judicial selection from future Presidents. According to the proposal, future federal judges would be selected not by an elected President, but with the aid of home-state Senators and a bipartisan commission...