The following excerpt is from an article written by Brad Kutner from the Courthouse News Service, a ‘nationwide news service for lawyers and the news media’ based in Pasadena, California. Take a look at the article titled, Money Becoming Ever More Important in State Supreme Court Races:
This politicization of the courts was the focus of a recent report from Brennan Center For Justice at the New York University Law School. In it, the authors examine the growing cost of state Supreme Court races, and the heightened potential influence donor dollars might have on the judges that receive them..
The report found that record-breaking money is being spent on state Supreme Court races across the country. And that’s led court-watchers and advocates of independent jurisprudence to worry aloud whether all this money is undermining courts seen as the last word in state law disputes and a check on the executive and legislative branches of state government…
…Causing the greatest distress is the growing prevalence of so-called “dark money” in state judicial campaigns. Traditionally, candidate-specific groups — the super PACs one hears of every election cycle — are required to disclose donors under federal and many states’ laws.
Also, the 2016 California State Bar Program posted the following video from October 2, 2016 that examines the California Constitution’s system for electing justices and judges to determine how the ‘elections can influence the administration of justice’. The speakers in the video below include UC Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and former California Supreme Court Justices Joseph Grodin and Cruz Reynoso. Take a look:
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