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Jul 18, 2006 11:30 pm US/Central
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Panel Weighs How To Keep Justice Scales Balance
St. Paul (AP) ―
The man who led the fight that prompted the courts to throw out Minnesota's strict limits on how candidates can campaign for judgeships said the change doesn't threaten the impartiality of judges.
Greg Wersal told a citizens commission led by former Gov. Al Quie on Tuesday that Minnesota voters should maintain their right to choose judges. He also said there's nothing wrong with allowing candidates to openly say what they'd do on the bench.
Wersal was facing the Citizens Commission for the Preservation of an Impartial Judiciary, which was formed in response to his successful battle in what's known as the White case.
Wersal, a former state Supreme Court candidate, said the legal community was thrown into "near hysteria" by the U.S. Supreme Court and Appeals Court decisions that overturned the state's restrictions. But he said those fears are misplaced.
"We have elections not for judges, we have elections for the people," he said. "Elections are necessary to temper the arrogance of judges. That's why we have elections."
Wersal was the sharpest dissenting voice heard by the commission, made up of people who Quie said share a deep concern over whether Minnesota's judiciary can remain impartial if it's subject to the kind of freewheeling, big-spending, partisan campaigns that are seen in other states.
Quie said the volunteer commission was formed after Minnesota Supreme Court Justice G. Barry Anderson approached him about chairing the group, which includes Anderson, Justice Alan Page, other judges, and a bipartisan mix of people from the legal, political, academic and business communities.
Mostly, those who testified at the first of the commission's three public hearings shared the panel's concerns about where Minnesota's judicial elections could be heading. But several called for keeping some form of elections so the public can hold judges accountable.
Among the ideas that have been floated in the aftermath of the White decisions are either a system where judges are simply appointed and don't face the voters, or one like Missouri's where judges are first appointed, and then voters periodically choose whether to keep them or fire them.
Peter Swanson, a local attorney, argued for the Missouri system. He said it's not perfect, but a major weakness with the state's current system is that it requires a challenger to come forward and challenge a sitting judge.
"Who wants to end up risking their career?" he asked.
But Gail Chang Bohr, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Minnesota, urged the panel to preserve the ability of candidates to challenge sitting judges, saying it had afforded women and minorities an important opportunity for getting on the bench. She noted that a woman in the 1980s successfully challenged Ramsey County Judge John J. Kirby, who had dismissed female attorneys as "lawyerettes."
Several speakers expressed concerns about whether judges can remain impartial if they solicit campaign money, especially if they ask for it one-on-one.
Jay Benanav, a DFL St. Paul City Council member who's running against a sitting judge in Ramsey County, said Minnesota should impose limits on judicial campaign contributions, which it doesn't currently do, and urged the commission to look at some form of public financing for judicial campaigns.
Benanav referred to comments earlier in the hearing by Andy Luger, a candidate for Hennepin County attorney, who said he'd been advised never to leave home without contribution envelopes in his jacket pocket. Luger had said he was disturbed by the thought that judicial candidates might do the same thing.
"As you can see I have no envelopes in my pockets," Benanav quipped, holding open his jacket.
But Wersal called that issue a "red herring." He said the current rules allow judges to personally solicit funds only from groups of more than 20, not one-on-one. He said candidates need to be able to spend meaningful sums if they're going to get their message out. He said it should be enough to require candidates to disclose their contributors and then let their opponents raise any objections they might have.
The commission also has hearings scheduled for Thursday in Brainerd and Aug. 23 in Mankato.
Quie said the commission hopes to issue its report by January in time for the 2007 legislative session. He said they haven't decided yet whether to push lawmakers hard to adopt their recommendations or just "leave it on their desk" and hope they respond.
On the Net:
Citizens Commission for the Preservation of an Impartial Judiciary
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)