Colorado's Method Shines as U.s. Supreme Court Grapples With Florida's Judicial Elections
| Publication year | 2015 |
| Pages | 73 |
| Citation | Vol. 44 No. 9 Pg. 73 |
Departments CBA/DBA Joint Judicial Task Force
Colorado's Method Shines as U.S. Supreme Court Grapples With Florida's Judicial Elections
By Keith Lewis
About the Author
Keith Lewis is a Denver-based attorney with a trial and appellate litigation practice. He is a co-chair of the CBA/DBA Joint Judicial Task Force Communications Subcommitteekeith@lewislawdenver.com.
Colorado's system of judicial selection is one of the nation's best. Coloradans enjoy a balanced system that largely removes politics from the bench but also listens to the citizens' voice in the form of retention elections. Colorado's judicial selection system mirrors the model plan promoted by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor since her retirement. When a judicial vacancy occurs in Colorado, a merit selection committee accepts applications from candidates. The committee selects up to three candidates for the governor's consideration. The governor then interviews the finalists and appoints a judge from among the three. Once appointed, the judge periodically faces retention elections where he or she must receive a majority of votes to remain on the bench.[1]
Colorado's system has been touted as one of the best in the country at balancing the competing interests of removing politics from the judicial selection and giving the voters a voice.[2] However, not all states are fortunate enough to share Colorado's balanced process.
The Williams-Yulee Case
Recently, Florida's system of judicial selection came under scrutiny when the U.S. Supreme Court analyzed the balancing of a judicial candidate's First Amendment free-speech rights against Florida's interest in regulating judicial elections and judicial ethics.[3] The result left some experts scratching their heads about the Court's implicit notion that judicial elections are different from legislative ones, and therefore may be subject to stricter rules without offending free speech.
Like thirty-eight other states, Florida elects at least some of its judges. In 2009, Lanell Williams-Yulee, a Tampa-area public defender, began her campaign for Hillsborough County Circuit Court Judge.[4] During that campaign, she sent out a fundraising letter personally soliciting campaign contributions.[5] The Florida Bar took disciplinary action and, after a hearing, recommended a public reprimand.[6] The basis for the misconduct was authorized by Florida's Code of Judicial Conduct, Canon 7(C)(1), which provides, in pertinent part:
A candidate ... for a judicial office that is filled by public election between competing candidates shall not personally solicit campaign funds, or solicit attorneys for publicly stated support, but may establish committees of responsible persons to secure and manage the e xpenditure of funds for the candidate's campaign and to obtain public statements of support...
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