Why We Need an Independent Judiciary
Fair Courts E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Bill Robinson III
Source: Huffington Post
Date: December 14, 2011
In a Huffington Post commentary, ABA President William Robinson III warns elected officials to “focus their attention on the fundamental problems facing our courts.” Robinson continues by noting that “[t]he state judicial system is on the verge of becoming nonfunctional and irrelevant because of increasing workloads and inadequate funding. The federal judiciary suffers from a chronic undersupply of judges and a ballooning number of statutes that have led to a growing docket of cases.” An opinion piece in Reuters by Adam Skaggs and Bert Brandenburg raises concerns about additional threats to the judiciary. Referencing The New Politics of Judicial Elections, 2009-10, a report on special interest spending in judicial elections released earlier this year, they cautioned that “[s]tate judiciaries are caught in a vise, squeezed on one hand by interest groups waging an unrelenting war to impose partisan political agendas on the bench, and on the other by devastating fiscal pressures. As the Supreme Court continues to weaken campaign finance laws, and the nation prepares for the most expensive election cycle in history next year, elected judges will only see more pressure from outside groups—increasing public concern that justice is for sale.”
See also: Adam Skaggs and Bert Brandenburg, Campaign Cash Finds its way to the Courtroom, Reuters, December 14, 2011.