The people's courts : pursuing judicial independence in America / Jed Handelsman Shugerman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shugerman, Jed Handelsman, 1974-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Judges--United States--States--Election--History.

Judges.

Judicial independence--United States--History.

Judicial independence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (392 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the United States, almost 90 percent of state judges have to run in popular elections to remain on the bench. In the past decade, this peculiarly American institution has produced vicious multi-million-dollar political election campaigns and high-profile allegations of judicial bias and misconduct. The People's Courts traces the history of judicial elections and Americans' quest for an independent judiciary-one that would ensure fairness for all before the law-from the colonial era to the present.In the aftermath of economic disaster, nineteenth-century reformers embraced popular elections as a way to make politically appointed judges less susceptible to partisan patronage and more independent of the legislative and executive branches of government. This effort to reinforce the separation of powers and limit government succeeded in many ways, but it created new threats to judicial independence and provoked further calls for reform. Merit selection emerged as the most promising means of reducing partisan and financial influence from judicial selection. It too, however, proved vulnerable to pressure from party politics and special interest groups. Yet, as Shugerman concludes, it still has more potential for protecting judicial independence than either political appointment or popular election.The People's Courts shows how Americans have been deeply committed to judicial independence, but that commitment has also been manipulated by special interests. By understanding our history of judicial selection, we can better protect and preserve the independence of judges from political and partisan influence.

Contents:

Declaring judicial independence

Judicial elections as separation of powers

The calm before the storm

Panic and trigger

The American revolutions of 1848

The boom of judicial review

Reconstructing independence

The progressives' failed solutions

Earl Warren, crime, and the revival of appointment

The Missouri plan

Exporting judicial elections

The puzzling rise of merit

Merit's stumble and surge, 1960s-70s

Judicial plutocracy from 1980 to the present.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674062825

0674062825

OCLC:

778459400