Sandra Day O'Connor: Stop Electing Judges
Multimillion-dollar judicial campaigns make it difficult to know whether a judge is deciding a case based on the merits or on concerns about reelection, she said.
She noted that the founders of the country believed it crucially important that federal judges have the freedom to make unpopular decisions without worrying about poll numbers. It was only after President Andrew Jackson's election in 1828 that he persuaded states to begin adopting elections ...
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As a judge who appointed George W. Bush president with tortured legal illogic, O'Connor has intimate exposure to ways in which judges are influenced by who puts them in office.