“That a local judge in your pocket? Or you just happy to see me?“
State judicial systems with popularly-elected judges send two lousy messages: (1) Judges, like mayors and congressmen, have “constituents”. (2) Justice, like real estate or widgets, is “for sale”.
Think of it like this. One those “nice” but rare, valuable and heart-warming things in life we ALL like to see:
Good Crops, Motherhood, the Flag, Andy Griffith, puppies, selflessness, courage (Mae West, above, had lots of it), Beauty, Truth, instructive Grecian urns, Marie Osmond when she was young, alarmingly obese Americans who have slimmed down (and are no longer each big enough to have their own Zip Codes), Robert Downey, Jr. sober, the Care Bears, Sweetness, Light–and replacing state judicial elections with merit-based selection in 39 American states.
My on-again off-again friend Scott Greenfield recently suggested to me very diplomatically (“you guys are stupid, lame, pathetic and tone deaf on this one…”) that at WAC/P? we are often not making clear enough points in our posts so that the infrequent generic law cattle, local cookie-cutter lawyer/bar association member, or other half-wit, who all stumble on us (especially upon the work of trust-fund baby Holden Oliver) from time to time, can understand “what the hell you guys are trying to say”.
Okay, Scott. So we’ll try this:
The popular election of state judges is beneath
(a) you,
(b) your law firm,
(c) your family’s dog, and
(d) especially your clients, and especially if you act for businesses who trade nationally or globally.