ConfirmThem

By AndrewHyman Posted in Analysis and Predictions — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

The U.S. Supreme Court will be hearing arguments tomorrow in a case about how New York State selects some of its lower court judges. The case is New York State Board of Elections v. Lopez Torres. The case could have huge ramifications for how judges are nominated and confirmed nationwide at all levels of government. The New York Times has an op/ed today about the case:

[P]arties ... choose their judicial nominees through a Byzantine system that ensures that their actual members, the voters, do no more than rubber-stamp the decisions that are actually left up to the party bosses.
An expert witness for the defendants in this case conceded that New York’s system of selecting judges was “designed” so “the political leadership of the party is going to designate the party’s candidates.” That might work well for the bosses, but it is bad for democracy and inconsistent with the political rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Of course, the Times loves blue slips and all kinds of other shenanigans in the U.S. Senate. The New York system appears to be just as lousy, but a First Amendment violation? Call me extremely skeptical.