This is what happens when you elect your judges; you get the same type of arsehole who get elected to sit in your legislature.
The problem is, if you don’t elect the judges, then they’re appointed. And guess who appoints them - people who were elected to some other office.
Trial by Combat.
You can self appoint from within the profession which is what we do in the UK. But that has its own problems and tends to entrench the establishment.
From the article, the original judge has been got rid of
[Quote]The Las Vegas justice of the peace, who could not be reached for comment for this story, lost his bid for re-election in Tuesday’s primary election against longtime defense lawyer Amy Chelini.[/Quote]
What a shame…
In Canada, they’re appointed by the Governor General and Lieutenant Governors (for the USAians, that’s pronounced “left-tenant”) from a list provided given to them by the Prime Minister/government; these lists are usually drawn up by advisory committees.
Depending on the jurisdiction, these committees are composed of laypeople, judges, government types, and lawyers. Despite the apparently non-democratic process which is ripe for abuse, we’ve managed to avoid the real craziness that seems to be a feature of systems with elected judges.
Yeah, that is kind of strange. How have we avoided a lot of this type of injustice?
A salient part of the story:
The Las Vegas justice of the peace, who could not be reached for comment for this story, lost his bid for re-election in Tuesday’s primary election against longtime defense lawyer Amy Chelini.
Personally, I have mixed feelings about judicial elections.
does anyone know if the losing justice of the peace lost the primary because he wasn’t conservative enough or because he was an idiot?
I have a suspicion that when regular people elect judges, they usually make the wrong choices. When the judges are selected by a panel of experts, on the other hand, they usually make good choices.
Regular people ‘learn’ about the judicial system from watching TV. Lawyers learn about the judicial system at university and from working in it. Me, I’ll take the latter.
In democratic Athens, archons were appointed by lot (i.e. let the gods do it.) But they also had juries of 600.
essentially, Justice Hafen is an asshole.
On this day, justice was served.
Of course this would be the thread I lose my likes for 2 hours (at which point I won’t be on the computer).
Everyone: you get a like, and you get a like, and you get a like…
If you don’t wish to use the autonym American, may I humbly recommend an alternative which is more readily pronounceable and has the bonus of riling Trump-eteer xenophobes? In our household we often call USA residents/citizens by our exonym Estadounidense, Spanish being my wife’s family’s native language. There are of course many other exonyms for American, but most are a translation of American, which I gather you wish to avoid.
Perhaps a hybrid process could combine legal expertise with the democratic process: committee nomination followed by democratic selection, or democratic nomination followed by committee selection. I believe there is some wisdom in the people being responsible for their state and local judiciaries, but agree that unalloyed democratic elections are too vulnerable to political whims. Since the framers of the US Constitution set up Federal court justices to be appointed, they seem to have agreed. I think judiciaries at the state level might well benefit from a more balanced approach.
Worked out for Cersei!
Referring to characters like this with the actual title of “Justice” might be affording them more respect and dignity than they deserve.
combat by vampire!
I remember the original story, and I thought the defender was being quite a jerk himself. (Herself?) That in no way excuses the Judge’s bizarre and unconstitutional actions. But it’s amazing to see a public defender being a jerk on behalf of their client, and actually suffering for them. I’ve read in many places public defenders are so overworked the average client gets ten minutes of their time. That being the case, even if they’re a jerk, you have to admire a PD who goes to the wall for one client.
How could any conviction be considered valid without representation?!?
