Just politicians in judicial robes?
by admin on 17/06/09 at 6:14 am
Charleston Daily Mail
June 17, 2009
RETIRED U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor lamented in a May speech to the American Bar Association the public’s mistrust of judges as “just politicians in robes” rather than impartial jurists.
Fairly or not, that accurately characterizes the views of a substantial number of West Virginians.
Some West Virginia justices have indeed conducted themselves like politicians – super-legislators in robes – and a divided electorate has funded increasingly expensive campaigns in support of and in opposition to that use of the judiciary.
This ongoing power struggle was highlighted recently when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the injection of large amounts of money into efforts to shape the state Supreme Court can create not only the appearance of bias but actual bias in justices who benefit from those campaigns – thus violating litigants’ due-process rights under the Constitution.
The state Supreme Court is also the subject of a different due process complaint, that one based on the fact that the court provides no appeal process if a justice refuses to step down from hearing a case.
