Judicial Selection Process

Being a judge is regarded as one of the most prestigious professions in the world. Depending on the court, whether the judgeship is state or federal, and the state, there are many different processes used for how judges take their office. Judicial selection has been a topic for discussion as people argue about which selection method is superior and why. As a proposal to Governor O’Malley, I will offer my opinion on which method should be used for the Maryland State Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, examine other methods, and ultimately provide why my solution is the ideal choice for judicial selection. As learned in class, the justices for the Maryland Court of Appeals are currently appointed by the governor and must be confirmed …show more content…
There should not be any retention elections and the justices should serve for life. I believe this method is the best choice for judicial selection because there are numerous problems with the other two methods. Upon looking at the way it currently is, with justices having periodic retention elections, I believe the elections are not only pointless, but harm the credibility of the justices along with the judicial system as a whole. While most of the justices never face any competition in retention elections, the possibility of someone else running against them completely ruins the system. If another person runs against the current justice and wins, they were not appointed by the governor nor were they confirmed by the Senate, so this already questions the credibility of the court. Another issue with retention elections is that elections in general can cause negative media surrounding the candidates. With negative ad campaigns, problems with justices that were never thought of by the general public before can be out in the open. With the general public rarely paying any attention to retention elections, one negative ad can ruin a justice’s entire credibility and whole body of work. Retention elections can cause problems that were non-existent to arise, and take up time that the justice could be using to be more focused on working than just …show more content…
Most of the public has no idea who their judges even are. Elections would take away some of the prestige of being elected by the governor, as merit is not always important for elections. Elections often times become an arms race of who can gather up the most money in support while trashing the other candidate’s campaign through ads or speeches. Most of the time during any elections, the everyday citizen is either uninformed, or under informed. They seem to pay very little attention to campaigns, and are easily swayed