Each state of the United States of America follows one of the particular judicial selection processes. The typical approaches to the choice of the judges are: partisan and non-partisan regular elections, merit selection and gubernatorial or legislative appointment (Chertoff, 2010). In most states a mix of those approaches is applied to the judicial selection processes within their own court system. This makes every state’s judicial selection process exceptional and unique. While all of those methods have their advantages and disadvantages, and no one of them is perfect, certain approaches to the selection of judges are more preferred than others. This essay is dedicated to the examination of the judicial selection process of the two American states with further explanation of their common and distinctive features in order to define the most efficient selection of judges. The state judicial selection processes for different court systems of Texas and Arizona were studied in this paper.
The Judicial Selection Process of Texas
Since the foundation of the Texas as a state in 1845, the judges of Texans courts were appointed by the governor with the senate consent. But starting from the 1866 all judges were elected by the voting of people. There was a trend of implementing judicial elections in the 19th century …show more content…
There are two supreme courts in the state - the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The first one has final appellate jurisdiction in civil and juvenile cases while the latter one has final jurisdiction in criminal cases (Jones, 2007). Each court has one chief justice and eight justices. All nine judges of those two supreme courts are chosen through the partisan statewide elections for the term of six years. One-third of the judges are reelected every three years although in the occasion of a vacancy, a judge is chosen on the new elections to complete the unexpired
The Judicial Selection Process of Texas
Since the foundation of the Texas as a state in 1845, the judges of Texans courts were appointed by the governor with the senate consent. But starting from the 1866 all judges were elected by the voting of people. There was a trend of implementing judicial elections in the 19th century …show more content…
There are two supreme courts in the state - the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The first one has final appellate jurisdiction in civil and juvenile cases while the latter one has final jurisdiction in criminal cases (Jones, 2007). Each court has one chief justice and eight justices. All nine judges of those two supreme courts are chosen through the partisan statewide elections for the term of six years. One-third of the judges are reelected every three years although in the occasion of a vacancy, a judge is chosen on the new elections to complete the unexpired