Gavel Grab

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• Among applicants for an upcoming vacancy on Maryland’s Court of Appeals is Judge Shirley Watts. Afro Briefs reports that if Watts is appointed to the bench by Gov. Martin O’Malley and confirmed, she would be the first female African American judge to serve on the Maryland appeals court.
• Recently elected Ohio Supreme Court Justices Sharon Kennedy and Judy French emphasized the need for judges to recognize their constitutional role in the state’s government at a meeting of the Republican Women’s Club on Thursday. According to the Ohio News Journal, the justices spoke as Ohio’s Supreme Court undergoes substantial changes, with an entirely fresh set of judges being elected to the Supreme Court in less than six years.
• Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Nocella has been suspended by the state Supreme Court and tried on misconduct charges, according to NewsWorks from WHYY. Lynn Marks, executive director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts (PMC), has decried Nocella’s unethical behavior, saying that during his term “there was a whole slew of not only unethical but illegal conflict.” PMC is a Justice at Stake Partner organization.
• Wisconsin Judge Mike Moran is concerned about security in Marathon County’s courthouses, and he called for more officers to help maintain safety this week, according to WSAU News. Moran wants to hire more part time-officers to assist in the transportation and movement of inmates through the county courthouse.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• June is gearing up to be a busy month for the U.S. Supreme Court, as it is expected to hand down rulings on four major cases. CNN reports that the justices will release their opinions on cases involving marriage equality, affirmative action, voting rights and gene patents.
• The Supreme Court’s justices have been unanimous in more than 60 percent of their decisions during this current term, a figure which Adam Liptak of the New York Times calls “remarkable.” However, Liptak states that the current harmony will dissipate as the justices prepare to hand down their final, and often toughest, decisions in June.
• Ohio Gov. John Kasich has left a vacancy on the Cleveland Municipal Court unfilled for far too long, argues the Cleveland Plain Dealer. There has been an open seat on the bench since November, when Judge Michael John Ryan won a seat to the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court in the 2012 election.
• Some lawmakers and court officials in Pennsylvania are weighing whether the state should provide more money for legal-aid services to underserved populations. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Castille argues that “civil legal services for indigent individuals and familes” is an important government service that should be included in the state budget, says a Newsworks article.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts, when examined by statistics, has been more sympathetic to the interests of corporations than any other court since World War II, argues Lincoln Caplan in a New York Times editorial. He notes one specific case of “pro-business bias,” Genesis HealthCare Corp. v. Symczyk, in which the court ruled in Genesis’ favor,  dismissing an individual’s claim in the collective action lawsuit.
• In her new book, “The Roberts Court,” Marcia Coyle examines the four highest-profile cases the current court has decided, such as health care, campaign finance, gun rights, and affirmative action policies. In a Washington Post book review, Jeffrey Rosen states that Coyle’s book avoids oversimplifying the decisions of the court along partisan lines between the justices.
• The Indiana Supreme Court blocked a transfer of a Lake County judge to a juvenile court this week, reports the Associated Press. In its decision, the court said that Judge Nicholas Schiralli could not transfer because he had not gone through the relevant system of merit selection of judges when he joined the bench.
• While Ohio may never do away with judicial elections, that does not mean that the system can’t be improved, argues a Cleveland Plain Dealer opinion by Thomas Suddes. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor recently proposed several changes to judicial elections, including giving Ohio’s senators an opportunity to review the governor’s judicial appointments.

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• In an Ohio Plain Dealer guest column, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor urges changing the state’s method of electing judges by removing partisan primaries in order to strengthen the process. Last week, O’Connor unveiled an eight-point plan for reforming judicial elections, including moving the placement of judicial candidates on the ballot and holding judicial elections in odd-numbered years (see Gavel Grab).
• Vanity plates signifying the driver is a member of the judicial branch aren’t unethical, but it may look bad to the public if some judges use the plates to get out of a ticket, argues a New York Times Union editorial. The judges should ask themselves if the license plate is meant to confer on them a special benefit, the editorial notes.

Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor’s call to scrap political party labels for judicial candidates in primaries (see Gavel Grab) “is big enough by itself to launch a good debate,” a Canton (Ohio) Repository editorial says.

Justice O’Connor recently delivered a speech unveiling an eight-point plan for reforming Ohio judicial elections, and holding nonpartisan primaries was a central point. Another suggestion is for the state Senate to confirm gubernatorial appointees to the Ohio Supreme Court.

The editorial states, “The eight changes O’Connor proposed last week should start an important conversation across the state.” Other media coverage included Ohio Public Radio, ”Chief Justice of Ohio Supreme Court Has Ideas for Reforming Process of Electing Judges; and Cincinnati.com, “Judge: Take politics out of our races.”

“Party affiliation has no place in judicial elections, period,” declared Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor at the State Bar Association’s annual convention this week.

The Associated Press reports that O’Connor unveiled an eight-point plan for reforming Ohio’s judicial elections. Primarily, she recommended ending partisan primary races for judges.

“Now is the time to revisit this topic once and for all, not to do away with judicial elections, which voters made clear they want, but to strengthen them,” O’Connor said.

State Supreme Court Justice Bill O’Neill argues that O’Connor’s plan ignores the critical issue in judicial races: campaign contributions. Read more

More than 300 million Americans are affected by the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, yet there are only 500 seats available for the public to watch the court’s proceedings. It’s time the justices listened to public opinion and allow cameras in the courtroom, argues Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor.

In an op-ed for the Columbus Dispatch, O’Connor writes that last month’s oral arguments concerning same-sex marriage illustrated that the “justices are lost in the 19th century when it comes to being open and transparent to the public they serve.”

Instead of watching the proceedings, we are left to speculate on the impending ruling and listen to “talking heads” analyze something they did not witness either, O’Connor says. Read more

Steve Nolder, director of the public defender’s office in southern Ohio, chose to fire himself instead of other lawyers after his office’s budget was slashed this year. Elsewhere, one of the top-rated lawyers in Northern Texas left his job in the wake of a 25 percent pay cut.

It’s a similar story in federal public defenders’ offices across the nation, according to the Huffington Post. Across-the-board budget cuts in March, known as sequestration, have led to hard consequences for many lawyers.

The article reports that the federal public defender system took an estimated $43 million cut this year. Texas public defender Richard Anderson is worried about losing experienced talent.

“I have spent the last seven years really investing in the legal acumen of my office. I have already moved from infinite rage to some sort of degree of quiet acceptance on my grief cycle, but I hope that articles will shine a light where we can get some relief.”

Read more

On Monday during NPR’s Talk of the Nation, Neal Conan interviewed Ohio Municipal Judge Mike Cicconetti and Texas District Court Judge Sid Harle on the death threats that judges and prosecutors have received.

Cicconetti, who works in a misdemeanor court, received a death threat almost seven years ago from a couple he was scheduled to try on a tax evasion charge. Cicconetti said the couple felt that everyone was out to get them.

“I think this rings true with so many of these people who are seeking vengeance on public officials that, you know, it’s everybody’s out to get them syndrome that they have,” Cicconetti said.

Local police notified Cicconetti that the defendant was constructing a pipe bomb and planned to detonate it in the judge’s home. Cicconetti told Conan that the death threat led him to carry stun guns when sitting on the bench. Read more

President Barack Obama, working to bring far greater diversity to the federal bench, has stepped up dramatically his pace for picking judicial nominees. Since January, he has announced three dozen court candidates, the Washington Post reports.

At the same time, Senate Republicans present a significant obstacle. There are some conservatives who say a push to diversify the judiciary further smacks of an affirmative action scheme that is not warranted.

The Post’s lengthy, front-page article included these Obama achievements in pressing for a more diverse group of federal judges:

• Female judges sit on appeals courts for the first time in four states.
• African-American judges sit on appeals courts for the first time in five states, and Hispanic judges in two. Read more