In watching the judicial elections there are two Inquirer articles that caught my eye. One is from this Sunday’s paper, “Dilapidation on his docket,” by Nancy Phillips. She writes about Common Pleas Court Judge Willis W. Berry, Jr., who is running unendorsed and without the Bar Association’s recommendation for state Supreme Court. Judge Berry owns 11 properties in North Philadelphia, most in poor condition. More distressing, though, is the fact that he operates his rental business out of his judge’s chambers. Not good.
On April 1, Tom Ferrick, Jr. wrote “In hock, and also hoping for your vote,” in which he tallies up some of the local candidates who owe back taxes. He has a long list of judicial candidates for Philadelphia traffic court, court of common pleas, row offices, and city council.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Injudicious Conduct
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
I can't make up my mind about elections for Judges. I lean toward the federal model of the exec nominating and the Senate concuring but that takes the voice of the people out of selecting our local magistrates. Up here in Luzerne County we have a Court of Common Pleas spot open but the the choice is between an incompentent DA and a guy no one thinks much of. The DA will win it but I can think of many other lawyers that we would be better Judges
Gort,
It is tricky. I don't like the idea of judges having to campaign and take campaign contributions from lawyers who will be trying cases in front of them. Or becoming beholden to local party organizations. The other option is putting judge selection in the hands of elected officials and we would have no say. I do lean towards merit selection, though, as opposed to election.
Good point about Judges taking money from the lawyers that would appear before them. How do you take money out of politics? Especially for elections like this?
Post a Comment