In a fundraising email this evening, the Tennessee Democratic Party goes after "the very right-wing and controversial politician Brian Kelsey" (that's right, very right-wing) because, among other things he• supported politicizing the judicial selection process by electing judges to their positions, from the state supreme court down to the [...]
The newly-appointed members of the shiny new Judicial Nominating Commission have been announced. For what it's worth, 15 of the 17 are lawyers.Here's a list of [the Speaker of the House Kent] Williams appointees:
-David Bautista, an attorney and adjunct professor in East Tennessee State University's Department of' [...]
If you're reading this post, you're no doubt aware that the Tennessee General Assembly renewed a commission-based system of selecting appellate court judges, and one aspect of the “reform” to the system was to require the appointment of a completely new selection or evaluation commission. [...]
The Commercial Appeal's analysis (here) of the battle in Tennessee over judicial selection: The internecine fights were most evident on the Republican side, over how judges of the Tennessee Supreme Court are selected.
It broke into open warfare two weeks ago when conservatives mutinied against a compromise drafted' [...]
A final WSJ report on this phase of the debate over who will pick Tennessee's appellate judges. Tennessee Bar Fight - WSJ.com From the article:Tennessee is moving the dial on how it chooses judges, changing parts of the so-called merit selection method that has governed the state for decades. [...]
A final WSJ report on this phase of the debate over who will pick Tennessee's appellate judges. Tennessee Bar Fight - WSJ.com From the article:Tennessee is moving the dial on how it chooses judges, changing parts of the so-called merit selection method that has governed the state for decades.' [...]
The State Senate voted today (here) to concur with the House's amendments to SB1573 (here), that is, a majority of Senators voted against a governor's override provision as part of the changes to Tennessee's commission-based system of judicial selection.
From what I knew about the situation, I was inclined to think that the correct conclusion in the WV refuse-to-recuse case (here) was obvious . . . until I read the facts and until I thought about the proper role of the Supreme Court in establishing precedent on a [...]
It has been interesting to read some of the reports from Liberal Bloggers' day at the Hill (here and here) And one comment from Ilissa Gold jumped out at me about some of the personalities involved: (Post Politics): "Rep. Hank Fincher drew applause from the bloggers when'" [...]
Next week the state senate will consider whether to accept a House version of Judicial Selection legislation that takes away the only real accountability provision of the bill. The Tennessean is reporting that the TBA is supportive of the Senate's version which includes a gubernatorial check on the commission's power [...]
One legislator's name came to mind--"Hank" Fincher, when I read this statement from David Fowler (of Family Action Council of Tennessee): And the Senate Republicans didn’t believe the House would accept a true election bill which, of course, we’ll never know for sure since they really didn’t have' [...]
Minutes ago the Tennessee House passed its version of the post-Tennessee Plan system for judicial selection. (HB1448). The Senate's version of the bill is SB1573.
The legislation is certainly an improvement over the modified Missouri Plan or Tennessee Plan in operation for several decades, even though it' [...]
Well, the Tennessee Plan (or Modified Missouri Plan) that has prevailed in Tennessee since the 70s is taking a beating at the state capitol today.
One positive (though no more constitutional) aspect of the bill that passed out of the (Republican-controlled) Senate today (SB1573) is that it gives [...]
As the propaganda campaigns (from both the Left and the Right) regarding Sotomayor's nomination have geared up, it is hard to argue with a straight face that any system of picking judges is above politics. The question is who gets to be substantively involved in the politics. Is' [...]
When listening this morning to Sen. Doug Overbey inveigh against comments from John Jay Hooker today in the Senate Finance, Ways & Means Committee (0:14:45 in the video), I was reminded of his simmering anger after comments by John Jay Hooker at a previous hearing before the Sen. [...]
Interesting debate this a.m. in TN Senate Finance, Ways & Means Committee. (here). They were debating whether to allow the bill preferred by the Lawyer's Lobby (SB1573--preserving unconstitutional, commission-based selection of judges) to advance in the Senate.
Note: great comments by Sen. Watson at 1:04 in the' [...]
During Monday's historic vote on SJR127, Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville) made this prescient comment:Obviously the courts and how we select them or how we should elect them is an issue before us now. And if we continue to go where the people have no say who sits on the Supreme' [...]
Rep. Hank Fincher (here) was in fine dismissive and demagogic form in the House Judiciary committee's discussion on HB2018 yesterday. "Horrible," "up for sale," "fervent hope," "spectre," "big money," "scare." He lost anyway.
First, he completely mischaracterized the effect (not to mention the intent) of this bill' [...]
Former Supreme Court Justice E. Riley Anderson has fired off a pointed op/ed in favor of preserving commission-based selection of judges, despite the Constitutional requirement that "judges of the Supreme Court shall be elected by the qualified voters of the state." In the piece he asks: ("Tennessee Plan" [...]
Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Janice Holder notoriously referred to contested elections of judges as "ridiculous." Well, Justin Owen of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research is proposing another "ridiculous" idea. ("The current plan on judges is ridiculous"): When it comes to democracy, I think it's time' [...]
Democrats in the State Senate (which fairly may be said to include Doug Overbey) have certainly been working hard to deprive Tennesseans of their Constitutional authority to choose Supreme and Inferior Court judges. But from within the New Ramsey Plan, there's a nifty provision for people to apply online to' [...]
Latest reports on the Ramsey compromise ("Significant movement on judicial selection" | NashvillePost.com) Ken Whitehouse: An amendment, supported by Ramsey, has been filed on SB2114 that would change who can be appointed to a judicial nomination commission and what the governor's options are when he's presented a panel. But [...]
"Keep Tennessee Plan for state judges" | jacksonsun.com |:There are plenty of reasons for liking the Tennessee Plan, but the primary one is, it works. Since its creation, it has worked, with rare exception, exactly as it was designed to.Yes, the "Tennessee Plan" has "worked" inasmuch as its purpose [...]
There was an intriguing argument in the comments following this Tennessean article ("Ramsey seeks deal on judicial selections"). I heard this novel argument second-hand over at the Capitol a couple weeks ago. From the comment:[Judges] are not supposed to interpret the law based on their own policy views nor [...]
Chief Justice Holder has gotten some coverage over her remarks that it was "ridiculous" to think that voters choosing judges is better than special-interest-lawyer-controlled commissions choosing judges. And similar campaigning by other sitting judges/justices is attracting criticism (here).
Andy Sher is reporting Bill changing Supreme Court selections approved by senate committee. From the article:The bill does away with the existing system of Supreme Court justice selection and election in which would-be candidates are screened by the Judicial Selection Commission and the names of three candidates are forwarded [...]
Ken Marrero, the Blue Collar Muse, has a splendid essay up today ("Special Interests in the Judicial Selection Process") pointing out the foolishness of claiming that commission-based selection of judges (e.g., "The Tennessee Plan") removes special interests from the process of picking judges. Ken writes:We don’t need Commissions telling [...]
It appears ("Bredesen regrets letting judicial genie out") that Governor Bredesen is blaming himself for "opening a pandora's box" regarding the decades-old system of picking judges via secret, unaccountable lawyers' commissions. From the article: With state lawmakers debating what to do with the Judicial Selection Commission, which is currently [...]
I missed last week's Times Free Press editorial, and I bet you did as well. Which is a shame since the op/ed declares that commission-based selection of judges manages to remove politics out of the process of selecting judges! From the article ("A threat to courts’ integrity"):Tennessee’s system of' [...]
Well, dear fan of Judicial Reform Coalition blog, good question. "Lawyers' Lobby" is not a commonly-used phrase, but the best definition is probably found here under "Makeup of the Judicial Selection Commission."[...]
Lt. Gov.Ron Ramsey has disclosed details about his proposal on Judicial Selection--in light of the impending battle over extending commission-based selection of judges. Read about it here.
Based on the reaction from the Lawyers Lobby and Business Lobbyists (as referenced in the article) this seems like a pie-in-the-sky [...]
Yesterday's Tennessean covered the debate on judicial selection and included an assertion about the fairness of the existing system. From the article:Democratic Rep. Henry Fincher, a Cookeville attorney, argued the existing system has promoted the merit-based selection of judges. "To me, we have a system that appoints fair,'" [...]
Via Post Politics here's a report from Tricities.com about TBA President Buck Lewis most recent stop on the Chicken Little, Esq. Talk Circuit. From the article: The Tennessee Plan, in place since 1994, is slated to sunset on June 30, and Tennessee officials believe the state will have' [...]
Adam Kleinheider of Post Politics plays Henny Penny (here) to the Lawyer Lobby's (which includes the AG) Chicken Licken on the issue of what will happen if commission-based selection of judges is allowed to sunset this Summer.http://judicialreformcoalition.blogspot.com/2009/04/tripping-with-chicken-little-esq.html
Kleinheider is Henny Penny, and others in the media will [...]
The House Judiciary Civil Practice and Procedure subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) held a hearing yesterday, and one of the subjects was Judicial Selection. Here is video of the hearing. While I think that racial or gender "diversity" is much less important than a commitment to [...]
In a report in The Tennessean last week we learned that Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey is not comfortable with elections (he should take that up with the generations of Tennesseans who placed and maintained that provision in the Constitution), and wants the House and Senate Speakers (aka, himself) to [...]
The AP is reporting that Lt. Gov. Ramsey has indicated he will agree to keep commissions.
Vandy Law prof Brian Fitzpatrick explains (
