{"id":29636,"date":"2018-05-08T00:42:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T00:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29636"},"modified":"2018-05-08T00:42:08","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T00:42:08","slug":"partisan-labels-should-not-elect-judges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29636","title":{"rendered":"Partisan labels should not elect judges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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My wife brought up a subject today that got me fired up. Her question played straight into my wheelhouse, hit me with an issue against which I have been ranting for, oh, many decades<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Partisan election of judges. That’s the issue.<\/p>\n

“Isn’t it just wrong to say ‘Wade Overstreet, Republican for judge'”? she asked as we drove past an Overstreet for judge lawn sign.<\/p>\n

Yes, it’s wrong. It’s also legal<\/em> in Texas.<\/p>\n

I have not a single thing against Wade Overstreet, who’s running for a judgeship in Potter County. My wife and I are unable to vote in that runoff election, given that we’re registered to vote in Randall County.<\/p>\n

I do have plenty of things against the way we elect judges in Texas. My first option would be to go to an appointment process, followed by a retention election. It’s a voting policy used in several other states. The governor appoints a judge, who then stands for retention after a term; voters then get to decide whether to retain the judge or demand that the governor finds someone else.<\/p>\n

My second option would be to elect judges on non-partisan<\/em> ballots. Get rid of Republican<\/em> and Democratic<\/em> judges.<\/p>\n

I have asked judicial candidates for many years — back in the day when I worked as an opinion journalist in Beaumont and Amarillo — a fundamental question: Can you explain to me the difference between Democratic<\/em> and Republican<\/em> justice?<\/p>\n

My wife noted with her usual intuitiveness that judges’ jobs are to follow the law, interpret it without regard to politics.<\/p>\n

Indeed, one can assess a judge’s judicial philosophy — whether he or she is too harsh or too lenient in bench rulings — without the crutch of a partisan label.<\/p>\n

There once was a time when competent Republican judges got the voters’ boot because they were of the “wrong” party in a state that once leaned heavily Democratic. The state flipped from Democrat to Republican about two decades ago. Now we see competent Democratic<\/em> judges and judicial candidates getting the same treatment from voters who punish them for being members of the wrong party.<\/p>\n

It’s wrong. Sadly, it won’t change likely within my lifetime.<\/p>\n\n

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My wife brought up a subject today that got me fired up. Her question played straight into my wheelhouse, hit me with an issue against which I have been ranting for, oh, many decades. Partisan election of judges. That’s the issue. “Isn’t it just wrong to say ‘Wade Overstreet, Republican for judge’”? she asked as … Continue reading Partisan labels should not elect judges<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[1343,7741,3917,7742],"class_list":["post-29636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-political-news","tag-democrats","tag-partisan-election-of-judges","tag-republicans","tag-retention-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29638,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29636\/revisions\/29638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}