Judicial Selection Goes to Trial in General Assembly
Fair Courts E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Jennifer Peter
Source: Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
Date: 1/12/2000
Leading Republican lawmakers in Virginia announced a plan to make the selection of judges less political and more open. State Republican leader S. Vance Wilkins Jr. declared that the legislature would form a statewide commission to evaluate nominees for vacancies on the Virginia Supreme Court and Appeals Court. The goal, Republicans said, “is to end the political patronage system that existed under Democratic leadership” of the legislature. The new GOP plan would not change the traditional legislative process whereby judicial candidates are interviewed by state House and Senate committees and voted on by the full legislature.