Ever since the 2002 case of Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down, on First Amendment Grounds, the “announce clause” of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Code of Judicial Conduct, which prohibited judges and judicial candidates from announcing their views on disputed legal or political issues, judicial elections have
Judicial Elections
A Change of Heart by the Chief on Judicial Elections?
By Marianna Bettman on
An interview with Ohio’s Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and AP reporter Andrew Welch-Huggins, which ran in a number of Ohio newspapers last week, carried the headline “Ohio Chief Justice: Time to Rethink Judicial Elections.” The story quotes O’Connor as saying that because nearly 70% of the judicial races (69% in this election cycle) are uncontested,…