>Merit Selection & Retention Elections for MN Judges

Many organizations such as the League of Women Voters and the Joint Religious Legislative Committee (JRLC) support legislation establishing Judicial Retention Elections. Many on the DFL Senior Caucus Board are supporting this legislation. We encourage you to look over the following information and support this legislation (SF70) and to let you legislators know of your support. (Find your legislator at http://www.gis.leg.mn/mapserver/districts/ )
Judicial Retention Elections are a move to insulate Minnesota from a national trend toward bare-knuckle, costly politics in judicial elections. The shameful judicial contest in Wisconsin last year illustrates how these tactics can corrupt an election. A recent Minnesota Court decision created the same rules for judicial elections as those in Wisconsin.
Currently Judicial Candidates can:
•    Announce their views on legal and political issues;
•    Announce their party affiliations;
•    Seek, accept, and use party endorsements;
•    Address party gatherings such as conventions;
•    Directly ask for campaign contributions to groups of 20 or more.
SF 70 is legislation that will protect the Minnesota Judiciary from becoming subject to partisan issue oriented campaigns. The Bill incorporates the recommendations of the Bipartisan Commission on Impartial Court (see below).  The bill would amend the Minnesota Constitution and relevant statutes to require that judges who have been initially appointed by the Governor stand for a retention election at the next regularly scheduled general election held more than three years after the appointment of the judge. If the majority of voters vote “no confidence” in a sitting judge, the office would be declared vacant and the Governor would appoint a new individual to fill the vacancy, as provided under current law. If the voters decide to retain the judge, the judge would serve an eight-year term.
Bipartisan Commission on an Impartial Court
In Minnesota former Governor Quie, Supreme Court Justice Page and others formed a bipartisan reform commission in 2006 to find a remedy for Minnesota. The proposed constitutional amendment would require all judges to submit to periodic professional performance reviews, then stand for a yes or no election every eight years based on those reviews. If a judge is recalled by voters, i.e. fails to receive a majority vote, the governor would appoint a replacement based on a merit formula.
For More Information:
Joint Religious Legislative Coalition
League of Women Voters