edit..I read recently that of the inmates freed from death row by The Innocence Project; misconduct by the prosecutor was found in 78% of the cases. A very sobering statistic.

Equally sobering are the prosecutors, and their groupies, governments, county managers, DAs, ADAs, who absolutely oppose any DNA testing on cases where it wasn’t available and the only “evidence” was a faulty eye witness account and the high number of cases where the “evidence” was lost (intentionally in a number of cases) by the DA’s office so there is nothing left to test.

Judges are elected??!!!

O’Conner was referring to states that elect judges (as opposed to merit selection), Fern, where often and inevitably a judge feels obligated to pay back people who funded his or her election and helped them get there and often does just that.

Often the governor appoints them when there is a vacancy , but they have to stand for election after so many years.

The elections are increasingly costing millions of dollars in some states.

O’Conner has written a number of articles arguing judges should not be elected, and she’s in the cat bird seat, since her swing vote appointed the current “President” Busharraf after he lost the popular election.

Hanging chads, and all that and eight years later the “Britney-OJ presient US” has done nothing significant to stop hackable voting machines or to guarantee accurate elections as it drifts further and further into Bannana Republic Fascism propelled by gutless “Democrats” and cookie cutter Republican zealots who will probably get Telco Immunity and other totalitarian aspects of the PAA passed before Christmas.

The 2008 elections that are superficially covered by individuals like Tweety Bird Mathews when MSNBC isn’t fascinated by OJ, Britney, and Barry Bonds’ case that is eminently defensible given the enormously vague questions DOJ is using to allege purgery.

The Federalist Society has been cloning Right Wing Fascists to get onto the federal bench, and they already have four of them who have fat butts on the Supreme Court.

Roberts Age 52
Alito 57
Scalia Age 71
Thomas 59

Justices Who are not Right Winged Fascists and in fact have scores of Admirable Traits

John Paul Stevens Age 87
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Age 74
Steven Breyer Age 69
David Souter Age 68

Justice Who Can Be Swung to Be a Right Winged Fascist with Increasing Frequency:

Anthony Kennedy Age 71

Federalist Society members have helped wreck the current DOJ creating a Rachel Pauloseesque atmosphere systemically and an environment where the FBI has faked evidence in over 2500 cases, and are succeeding admirably at getting increasing numbers into the ranks of trial and appellate justices –usually as part of package deals where Democrats keep quiet and let them through as occurred a couple weeks ago and will occur in the next few weeks.

One such deal was the October 24 confirmation of Leslie Southwick, an eggregious individual subbed for the failed Pickering seat on the 5th Circuit bench, after the gutless Democarts helped to invoke cloture.

Nine Democrats and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman-Busherman, an independent (Republican lickass) from Connecticut, joined the Senate’s 49 Republicans in voting for confirmation

There is no good answer while lawyers feel they own the law. Until Judges are elected from real people, instead of prosecutors seeking a promotion, the whole system is going to continue to sink. The law is too important to be lefy to the lawyers.

Suzanne is a law professor at Wake Forest and the expert on family law in NC. There is currently no one serving on the state supreme court who has any expertise in this area.

Suzanne Reynolds for Supreme Court

Suzanne in her own words

That she has chosen to do this gives me newfound hope for our judicial possibilites. I cried from joy last night when I learned she’s running. She is simply the finest combination of intellect, character and kindness I have ever know in one person.

NC firepups — we need this woman on the bench.

Fern at 9 — They are in my state. Federal judges are appointed, but all judges are not. Our state supreme court justices are elected, as are our circuit judges and family law judges and magistrates. That’s a lot of legal process balancing on the thin edge of politics, fundraising, and ethics, and the wire is increasingly frayed by outside interventions and special interest money.

I have a friend who is considering a run for family court judge here in north-central WV. Outside interventions and special interest money aren’t a concern for family court, are they? I hope I’m not being naive.

“It’s the logic of the Civil War,” Huckabee said Sunday, comparing abortion rights to slavery. “If morality is the point here, and if it’s right or wrong, not just a political question, then you can’t have 50 different versions of what’s right and what’s wrong.”

“For those of us for whom this is a moral question, you can’t simply have 50 different versions of what’s right,” he said on Fox News Sunday.

link

Just a little reminder to those who say “both parties are equally bad..I’m staying home or we need a third party” of what is at stake. A Republican President in ‘09 and Kiss Roe good-bye. 2-3 more young Federalist Society true believers on the SCOTUS..well just read SCOTUS history from ~1890 to 1935 to see what we are in for.

OT…

Take a feminist out to dinner.

That’s the advice of a social psychologist who concludes in a new study that feminists make better partners and have stronger romantic relationships.

link

yeah, but be careful the first time you try the “bend over boyfriend” thing. It hurts. Trust me on this.

Christy at 41:

You have a point. Still, I question the editorial judgment of asking her to write about choosing judges with integrity and freedom from convlicts of interest. Isn’t that like asking Giuliani to write about marital fidelity or Mrs. Baron Hilton to write about parenthood?

For rethug-type voters, it may make them reconsider some things long and hard, if a judge, who threw an election over to a person of their party so brazenly, now calls for this sort of stuff.

I dunno. Mebbe it depends on how much kool-aid the person’s drunk, but there’s got to be plenty of rethug-voters who are really much more moderate than the crazy apeshits in office…