There was a time when I believed we should change the way judges are selected in Mississippi. Instead of electing them as we do now, I thought we could limit the amount of undue political influence in our judicial system by having the governor appoint judges and then the Senate confirming the appointees.
Then, in 2003, I had an interesting conversation with a former Supreme Court justice who agreed that reform was needed but maintained that taking the choice away from the voters was a dangerous road down which to travel. Instead, he put forth a familiar argument of his for capping political expenditures in judicial races.
While I did not wholeheartedly embrace his plan for caps, the late Armis Hawkins in fact changed my mind about elected versus appointed judges. Perhaps it was the merits of his argument, or perhaps it was his sheer brilliance of which I was in awe. Either way, I left his office in Houston, Miss., that day with a different outlook.
Our judicial system, whether it be on the county level or in the highest court of our state, must remain above reproach when it comes to the taint of favoritism. Some would argue that politics is at the very heart of such a taint, but I believe otherwise.
In an appointed system, the judge is beholden to the people who put him there. He answers to no one but the powerful and the few who control his fate.
But in an elected system, a judge must answer to those he serves from the bench. In this system, he serves masters of all stripes whose level of power and influence are justly equal through the casting of a sole ballot.
This issue — whether to appoint or to elect judges — will be an important one in several judicial races in Mississippi this year. For the purposes of full disclosure, I’m closely involved in one of those races. Thankfully, I’m blessed to be working for a candidate with whom I agree on this topic.
(As an aside, political consultants often work with candidates with whom we disagree on at least one or two issues, but with whom on the average we agree with their stances. So far, I’ve found very little about which I disagree with my candidate.)
That said, I urge you to consider what it means to a society when the powerful try to take away the influence of the people. Doing so breeds far more corruption and greed than does the political system on which we were founded.
I, for one, cringe when I hear people decry our political system as nothing but corrupt. These people forget that this system was designed during the throes of a revolution.
Politics may not be pretty, but it allows for a democratic approach to choosing those who govern over us, who make our laws and, at least in Mississippi, who interpret those laws. The means to an end may be unpleasant for some, but the end is a just means of securing representation for us all.
And when it comes to how our judges are selected, I’m thankful for Mr. Hawkins. He set me straight.
