Last Thursday’s ruling by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals striking down Minnesota’s rules barring judges or judicial candidates from personally accepting campaign money or from endorsing political candidates has added another nail to the coffin of impartial justice.
The appeals court said there are protections against the influence of money such as allowing judges who receive campaign contributions from people appearing before them in their courtrooms can remove themselves from the case. But federal courts have consistently struck down rules limiting political speech by those seeking seats on the bench. And the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations now have the same rights as individuals.
The circuit court ruling will soon turn judicial campaigns in Minnesota into the same ugly partisan contests that we have seen in states that have opened the judicial campaign floodgates like Wisconsin, our neighbor to the east. Allowing judges to seek campaign contributions will sever the few remaining threads holding our system of equal and impartial justice together.
Confidence and trust in our elected public officials has pretty much bottomed out. The overwhelming majority of people in the country believe our elected officials are bought and paid for and are in Congress strictly to serve their own moneyed interests. But losing confidence and trust in our judiciary could lead to more dire consequences.
Lobbyists and special interests will support judges they think will rule in their favor. Negative attack ads will proliferate as money pours into judicial coffers, much of it from outside the state. The huge influx of dollars will lead to an even greater explosion of big money into judicial races in this state and in others. It’s a never-ending cycle that has already led to obscene amounts of money being spent on political races.
Minnesota has elected its judges since 1857 and has had a reputation for fair and impartial justice. Given the recent circuit court ruling, the states last and best hope to preserve its untainted justice system, may be to drop its system of electing judges. Many judges currently run unopposed now.
The legislature has begun work on a constitutional amendment that would make all judicial seats appointed, subject only to what is known as “retention election.” Voters would only be allowed to decide whether judges had done a good enough job to keep their seats.
The rich and powerful can already buy the best lawyers. Let’s not allow them to buy the judges as well.