Gavel Grab

A study to be released soon by the Justice at Stake Campaign, the Brennan Center for Justice and the National Institute on Money in State Courts shows unprecedented sums of cash flowing into campaign accounts of state judges around the country, according to an ABC News exclusive report.

Candidates in state judicial elections raised more than $206 million in the past decade, more than double the $83 million raised in the 1990s, according to the study by the two nonpartisan groups. They advocate for reform of the judicial selection process.

“State judicial elections have been transformed,” according to the report, and the soaring amounts of money involved have created “a grave and growing challenge to the impartiality of our nation’s courts.”

In addition, the report found that in all but two of 21 states with contested Supreme Court elections in the past decade, candidates shattered fundraising records.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and others have cautioned that a threat to judicial independence is posed by the amount of money pouring into judicial election campaigns (see Gavel Grab). “If both sides unleash their campaign spending without restrictions,” Justice O’Connor warned recently, it will “erode the impartiality of the judiciary.”

From a different vantage point, however, lawyer Jim Bopp said such elections are viewed by many conservatives as “a way to keep judges within the proper bounds. A way to keep them judges rather than judicial activists.” Bopp has pushed for more states to elect judges.

Last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined Justice O’Connor in calling for an end to state judicial elections (see Gavel Grab). On the same day, prominent appellate lawyers in Alabama were gathering at a restaurant reception in Birmingham honoring Alabama Supreme Court Justice Michael F. Bolin, according to ABC News. Justice Bolin is seeking reelection, and contributions requested for the event were $250.

When Justice Bolin last ran in 2004, he raised more than $1.6 million, according to the National Institute’s fundraising database. His top five donors contributed a total of $1,051,000, averaging just over $210,000 apiece.