Story Created:
Feb 12, 2009 at 9:05 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Feb 12, 2009 at 9:05 PM EDT
A bill to elect Superior Court judges in St. Joseph County won resounding support from the Indiana House on Thursday, which approved the measure 88 to 3.
But the breezy journey through the House could become a bit more turbulent in the Indiana Senate, where it heads next.
Superior Court judges in St. Joseph and Lake counties are appointed by the governor using a process called merit selection. Voters can decide whether to retain the judges or boot them from the bench at the end of six-year terms.
The measure would set up nonpartisan elections for Superior Court judges in St. Joseph County only.
“The so-called merit selection system, and I submit that that’s a misnomer, puts judges effectively in lifetime tenure,” St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak told The Tribune after the bill cleared a House committee last week.
Retention elections have never resulted in a jurist being removed from the bench.
“When no judge is ever defeated in that system, you have no accountability,” Dvorak said. “So the merit selection system for the sake of having judicial independence gives up judicial accountability. To have good jurists, you have to have both.”
The bill - which has been brought up in years past but never made it out of the committee process, let alone cleared the entire House - is a bad idea, said Michael Scopelitis, chief judge of the St. Joseph County Superior Court.
And politicians’ arguments that judges aren’t accountable to anyone is code, he said.
“What they really mean is ‘They’re not accountable to us,’ ” Scopelitis said.
In addition to retention elections, judges are evaluated by the local Bar Association and are subject to disciplinary action and citizen complaints.
Scopelitis said there’s a movement statewide to expand merit selection to other counties and the bill is designed to let the air out of those tires.
“I think there’s more of an urgency on their part to push this kind of legislation through, to try to stop the momentum of those who would have merit selection,” he said.
The League of Women Voters of South Bend and the St. Joseph County Bar Association spoke against the bill during committee hearings.
Of Indiana’s 92 counties, 87 have direct elections of judges. Allen and Vanderburgh counties have nonpartisan elections, and Marion County has a totally different process, known as slating.
But just because St. Joseph County’s system is in the minority doesn’t mean it should be counted out, said John Lloyd, who takes over as president of the Bar Association in July.
Merit selection “strikes the proper balance between judicial independence and accountability,” Lloyd said.
“The system that we have was a reform from the early 1970s that has worked,” he said. “There’s no reason to change what’s already working.”
It’s unclear what journey the bill will face in the Senate. Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Bray, R-Martinsville, could not immediately be reached for comment.
State Sen. John Broden, D-South Bend, sits on the judiciary committee. In the past, Broden has backed the merit selection system.
He said Thursday night that he’d not reviewed Fry’s most recent legislation, and could not comment specifically on whether the measure would receive his support.
Staff writer Ed Ronco:
eronco@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6353
