Merit retention.

AuthorSlepin, Stephen Marc
PositionLetters - Letter to the editor

I address President Scott Hawkins' right-headed article endorsing respect for the independence of our judges from crass political pressures. My late mentor, Judge Vincent Giblin of Miami, early urged the adoption in Florida of what was called "The Missouri Plan." And, in the early 1970s, I was proud to assist in the legislative creation of nominating commissions for judges of compensation claims in the benign effort to rescue a dolefully politicized system.

However--and the "however" is always the lawyer's brake on excessive enthusiasm--I respectfully suggest that President Hawkins' appropriate zeal for an independent judiciary exceeds prudent analysis when he suggests that judges are, and ought to be considered, hermetically insulated from our cherished political process.

Nominating commissions, however desirable, are not nonpolitical: It is merely that the constituency is smaller than the voting public, and is (we hope)...

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