Brennan Center for Justice

Coalition Seeks to Protect Judicial Elections in Minnesota
Fearful that Minnesota judicial elections may descend into the politicized battles that plague many of its neighbors, a coalition seeks to enact significant election reforms in the state, according to a MinnPost article. Currently, more than 90 percent of Minnesota judges reach the bench through merit selection, which Sherri Knuth, public policy manager at the League of Women Voters of Minnesota, claims “probably has protected us…from some of the abuses of other states.” The Coalition for Impartial Justice, a group of more than 30 organizations across the state, is pushing for judicial reforms that will protect Minnesota’s races from special interests. The coalition has proposed the Impartial Justice Act, which would require all new judges to be chosen through merit selection, and then maintain their seats through retention elections. Representative Debra Hilstrom, DFL-Brooklyn Center, chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee, has already expressed apprehension regarding the bill, stating, “I am not a fan of retention elections in its current form…I think that there are things we can do in our state to make certain that we don’t have big money influencing our judicial system.” The coalition hopes to bring the act to a vote in the 2014 election.
Sources:  James Nord, Recent legal, political changes could endanger Minnesota’s highly regarded judicial selection system, MinnPost, July 18, 2013; Coalition for Impartial Justice, Impartial Justice Act, 2013.

JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE 

New Report Highlights Spending in Michigan Judicial Elections
The Michigan Campaign Finance Network, a non-profit, nonpartisan research center that tracks money in judicial elections, recently published a report detailing spending in every state and federal election in Michigan in the last year. The report stems from concerns about Michigan’s particularly lax election standards. Although the Citizens United ruling made it unconstitutional to limit corporate or union spending in an election, the Citizen’s United majority indicated that “states could, and indeed should, require anyone trying to influence campaigns to disclose how much is being spent, and by whom.” Michigan doesn’t require groups or individuals to do so. Rich Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, argues, “Citizens should have the right to know whose money is driving critically important election outcomes, so they can evaluate how campaign spending correlates” to politicians’ actions. An article in the Windsor Star notes, “The report, filled with tables showing who gave what to whom, shows, as you might expect, new record spending last year. But what is most ominous is that more and more of it can’t be accounted for, because it is so-called ’issue advertising’ done by sometimes shadowy groups.” Robinson comments, “I think it critical that we achieve authentic, rigorous disclosure of whose money is driving politics… Once we achieve transparency in judicial campaigns, it will be much harder to justify in legislative and executive campaigns.”
Sources: Michigan Campaign Finance Network, Descending Into Dark Money: A Citizen's Guide to Michigan Campaign Finance 2012, June 2013; Michigan's murky election spending laws, Windsor Star, July 18, 2013.

FEDERAL JUDICIARY 

Congressional Black Caucus Blames Rubio for Blocking Nominations
The Congressional Black Caucus held a press conference last Wednesday blaming Senator Marco Rubio, R-Florida, for delaying the confirmation of two black judges, according to a Huffington Post article. Senator Rubio previously endorsed the two judges, recommending Brian Davis and William Thomas to President Obama last year to fill two U.S. district court vacancies in Florida. Since that time, Senator Rubio has refused to provide the Senate Judiciary Committee with a “blue slip,” which would allow the nominees to proceed through the committee. Representative Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, commented, “We would like our senator to step up to the plate and put away whatever games he is playing.” According to a Tampa Bay Times article, “Rubio now says he shares concerns about Davis that were raised last year by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley questioned statements Davis made in the mid 1990s, including suggesting Joycelyn Elders was forced to resign as U.S. surgeon general because she is black.” Rubio also expressed concern over Thomas’s involvement in a case in which a man implicated in the hit-and-run death of cyclist was sentenced to only 364 days in jail. The Congressional Black Caucus’s complaints reflect larger concerns that “30 percent of judicial nominees pending confirmation in the Senate are African-American.”
Sources: Jennifer Bendery, Marco Rubio Slammed By Black Lawmakers Over Stalled Judicial Nominees, Huffington Post, July 17, 2013; Alex Leary, Sen. Marco Rubio under fire for holding up black judicial nominees, Tampa Bay Times, July 17, 2013.