Gavel Grab

A report  by the American Constitution Society (see Gavel Grab) sparked renewed media attention to concerns that interest group spending on judicial elections may influence rulings by judges.

“Business donations to judges’ campaigns often equal friendly rulings,” declared a headline for a McClatchy article about the report. Reporter Michael Doyle wrote, “State supreme court justices are favoring the corporate interests that finance their election campaigns, a comprehensive new study concludes.”

Stateline, an online publication of The Pew Charitable Trusts, had an article entitled, “Do Campaign Donations in Judicial Races Influence Court Decisions?” It quoted former Montana Supreme Court Justice James Nelson as saying, “We are in the midst of a ‘perfect storm’ of campaign money.” He listed these factors: “Favorable judicial rulings to satisfy this money, partisanship and a media attracted to (covering) typical politics that is now threatening to destroy judicial independence and impartiality.” Read more

In the Montana legislature this year, the state Senate passed a bill to bring greater disclosure of the hidden political money that flows through third-party political groups, but the measure languished in the state House. Now disclosure advocates will try another approach, through a ballot measure.

The Missoulian reported that proponents say the measure would require any entities that make expenditures to influence campaigns in the state to disclose that spending and their financial backers. The proponents are led by Republicans.

“We think the people of Montana need to have a voice (on this issue), and we’re confident that they would like to see this dark money reported … so they can follow the money,” said Sen. Jim Peterson, a Republican. Read more

When public defender Ed Sheehy (photo right) was running for a seat on the Montana Supreme Court in 2012, an organization listed as the Montana Growth Network sent out mailers accusing him of being “soft on crime.” Sheehy had won the primary race, but went on to lose the general election in November, reports the Redlands Daily Facts.

Sheehy blames the mailers for his defeat, but due to Montana’s campaign disclosure laws, he was not able to find out who funded the organization. Before the primary, the Montana Growth Network endorsed District Judge Laurie McKinnon (photo below left), the article says, and she later went on to win the election.

A third candidate, attorney Elizabeth Best, spent the most money on her campaign of the three candidates. She told the Center for Public Integrity that she was “stunned” by the outcome. Read more

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• On Wednesday, the Texas House Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety debated allowing all county officers and employees to carry guns in courthouses. Gavel to Gavel reports that violence has increased around Texas courthouses, and a Kaufman County prosecutor and his wife were shot recently at their home.
• Judge Richard Cebull of Montana, known for sending a racist email about President Barack Obama last year, has announced he will retire from the bench this May. People for the American Way says that Cebull should have stepped down more than a year ago, and that openly expressed racism and partisanship “are toxic to the idea of a fair and just federal court system.”
• In a New York Times Opinionator blog, Linda Greenhouse considers whether the outcome of the Defense of Marriage Act case before the Supreme Court will become a “constitutional Trojan horse.” The justices seem to be considering the concept of federalism as they approach the case, she says, and may choose to strike down the federal law but leave the decision to legalize same-sex marriage up to the states.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has announced the formation of a committee to advise her on candidates for federal judicial vacancies in the state.

Distinguished members of the Massachusetts legal community will sit on the committee, according to an Associated Press article. They will review applications for open judgeships, and she ultimately will make recommendations to the White House, Warren said in a press release.

As a way to cool partisan tempers in Washington, the American Bar Association has recommended that senators form bipartisan commissions in each state to review and suggest slates of the most professionally qualified judicial candidates. You can learn more from Justice at Stake’s website

Meanwhile Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mt., has recommended the names of Montana Supreme Court Justice Brian Morris and Yellowstone County District Judge Susan Watters to the White House for two open federal district judgeships in the state, the Montana Standard reported.

Read more

Montana Supreme Court Justice Laurie McKinnon (photo) took the oath of office on Monday, marking the first time in state history that three women have sat on the bench. McKinnon will join fellow Justices Beth Baker and Patricia Cotter, according to KPAX News.

McKinnon defeated Ed Sheehy for the seat in November, and will be taking the place of retired Justice James Nelson. She previously served as a District Court Judge, and was an attorney for 20 years.

“I can’t promise I’ll issue decisions that everybody will be happy with, but I will issue decisions that are based on reverent study of the law, and I will consider every argument presented to be fair and impartial,” McKinnon said during the ceremony.

Montana’s Initiative 166 related to campaign finance was overwhelmingly passed with 75% of the vote on Tuesday. Initiative 166 calls for the Montana congressional delegation to propose a constitutional amendment for overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United Decision, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Initiative 166 came five months after the high court “threw out” Montana’s 1912 anti-corruption law that prohibited independent expenditures by corporations on state elections (see Gavel Grab).

The Citizens United decision equates political expenditures to political speech. According to the article, a proposed constitutional amendment would establish that “corporations are not human beings with constitutional rights.” Read more

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• Richard Epstein, a professor at NYU Law School, hypothesizes about the economic impact of the Supreme Court in an LA Times op-ed. “Unless faulty economic policies that have received Supreme Court blessing are scaled back, the economic bad times will continue apace, no matter what our monetary and fiscal policy,” Epstein writes.
• In the race for a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court, former state legislator Earle Banks has emphasized the importance of not taking money from special interest groups as a key to his campaign. His rival, Chief Justice Bill Waller, says that while he has no control over which super PAC donates money to his campaign, it will not affect his ability to rule impartially, a Jackson Clarion Ledger article reports.
• Montana Supreme Court candidate Laurie McKinnon wrote that “negative advertising has no place in a nonpartisan race,” in a news releases disavowing negative ads run against her opponent, Ed Sheehy. According to The Missoulian, Sheehy called on McKinnon to denounce the ads  based on the state code of judicial conduct.
• Ohio Supreme Court Justice Robert Cupp emphasized the court’s independent, nonpartisan role at a Seneca County Republican Party Central Committee dinner, according to the Tiffin Advertiser Tribune. “We don’t represent any political party; we don’t represent interest groups,” said Cupp. “Our oath is to apply the law as it is to the facts that come before the court.”

The Montana Growth Network, a non-profit and pro-business group, has funded a radio ad accusing state Supreme Court candidate Ed Sheehy of having worked as an activist against the death penalty.

Sheehy dismissed the charge as a falsehood and asked his rival, District Judge Laurie McKinnon, to denounce the advertisement and demand its withdrawal, a Missoulian article said.

State Sen. Jason Priest, a board member for the Montana Growth Network, declined to disclose its financial backers. To learn about the group’s past expenditures in support of Judge McKinnon, and some of Priest’s controversial background, see Gavel Grab.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• Bill Moyers and Michael Winship emphasized the danger corporate spending in judicial elections poses to a fair and impartial justice system in an op-ed at Consortium News. The op-ed, called “Buying ‘Justice,’” ties in with the recent airing of “Justice, Not Politics” on Moyers and Company.  
• While both Montana Supreme Court candidates Ed Sheehy and Laurie McKinnon stress the importance of judicial impartiality, they have slightly different views on how to best demonstrate it, says a Montana Public Radio News article.
• New Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Wilhelmina Wright became the 90th justice and the first black woman to serve on the state’s highest court when she was sworn in to the bench today, according to an Associated Press article.
• The Supreme Court upheld today an Ohio appeals court ruling that will allow local election officials to choose whether or not to allow early voting, according to a New York Times article.