Ideally, being able to elect judges seems like a fair concept. Both parties present a field candidate and the voters decide which to choose; however, this system is flawed. Not only is it difficult for the people to obtain any real information about their candidates, there is also the issue of “…Texas justice being sold to the highest bidder.” As a result, many cases have been influenced because of these generous contributions to the candidates. Rather than electing judicial officials, Texas should adopt a system of having a governor, or the Senate, appoint its judges, then every few years, voters sustain the right to retain those judges if they so desire. To begin with, the problem with having the people elect their judges is that the citizens know next to nothing about who they are voting for. Of course, it is important the people have a say in the decision-making, but the fact of the matter is that not everyone is an expert in government. Candidates have no problem in persuading the people that the other candidate is evil and corrupted and not suitable to serve. Furthermore, it is difficult to learn how well a judge preforms his or her job once they are put into office. Why? While it is easy to uncover corruption amongst our …show more content…
As was stated before it is widely known how dishonest politicians can be. If judges were to be appointed by an amoral governor the people could be left with a judge just as twisted. Many argue that the people are more aware of what goes on in daily life and how the law might affect the common people. But, many forget that our politicians reflect our choices. It makes sense that the leaders voters chose to represent them should be trusted to select our magistrates. But, then, there is always the benefit of being able to remove judges. Appointed judges are chosen for a life term. Elections ensure accountability though not necessarily for the
The Texas Constitution was a product of the Reconstruction era, the tumultuous period that preceded the Civil War. The document reflects the fears and hopes of its framers. They were fearful of an oppressive state after living under the oppressive scrutiny of the Reconstruction Era. They hoped to prevent that from happening again by putting strong restraints on the government. Most of those restraints have followed Texas into the modern era.
As of 2012, only fourteen percent of judges were Latino and what is even more disturbing is that only two percent are African American. Nevertheless, the percentage is small, and that has raised concern within minority groups that feel the "larger partisan judicial races make it difficult for minorities to get elected to judgeships, and that Texas judges do not reflect the diversity of the state." (Champagne & Harpham, 2013, p. 292) Ultimately, this will change over decades more and more, as minorities in Texas become the
You do not want Xlandia to be run on biases. If the people do select who are their judges, then they may be picking who will be kind to them, instead of being fair. You do not want a biased vote when it comes to the Constitution’s laws. We recommend that the Supreme Court should be independent and have the power of judicial review.
Like the Electoral College, several of the plans made by the Founding Fathers have lost some of their practicality. What worked in the past does not always work in the future, and this is the case for the jury system. The sole reason it was created was to ensure that each citizen was guaranteed a fair trial, which was a main concern due to Britain’s monarchy. In modern times, however, the judicial branch of the United States could easily give every citizen a fair trial with only a judge presiding over the case. It is clear that bench trials are superior to trials by jury because the citizens on juries are unqualified or biased, its benefits do not outweigh its burdens, and its claim to encourage civic duty is false.
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” This quote stated by George Bernard Shaw represents America’s jury system perfectly. We should ultimately eliminate the jury system from court, and use the bench system in all criminal and civil cases. Although there are many reasons why eliminating the jury system is a better choice, many people want to keep the jury system only because we have used it for a long time and they fear change. Without change, progress is impossible and those who want to keep the jury system should change their mind.
Our legal system allows judges to make important decisions on their own, which is a huge responsibility, and if it falls into the wrong hands, there could be severe
A fair and unbiased court system is necessary for the legal system. The role of the court is to correct any injustice, not to compound it. When prejudice and corruption leak into the courts, what recourse do we have for eradicating them from society? Our judges must be stalwarts of integrity because the power to move our country forward or hold our country back often lies in their hands. Judge Persky had the power to bring justice to a victim, to help her and her family move forward.
The Texas State Court system is very structured. There are 5 levels of the Texas Courts. Level 5 starts with Justice and Municipal Courts. Justice Courts have Jurisdiction over civil actions, small crimes, and criminal misdemeanors. The Municipal courts have jurisdiction over municipal ordnance cases and criminal misdemeanors that are only punishable by fine.
The quality of judges would without a doubt increase if they were appointed. However, I do not agree with the idea of judges being appointed. When looking at the partisan aspect you notice several possible issues with one issue being, is that individual the right person to do the job. Partisan election of judges allows for an individual that may not be as qualified for the job to be elected into the position. Nevertheless the partisan election of judges gives the voters what they want based on party affiliation along with qualifications.
In the state of Texas there are two courts of final appeal. The highest court for civil matters is the nine member Texas Supreme Court. The nine member Texas Court Criminal Appeals is for criminal matters. The number and variety of courts are confusing to the average citizen. The judges in these courts have only general qualifications who need not be lawyers and these judges are selected in a partisan election, which is a general election where the candidates are nominated by the political parties and their respective party labels appear on the ballot.
To win any kind of election/re-election candidates must work to please voters. Here in Texas where a majority of people have a strong pro-death penalty stance, judges must also have a strong stance regarding the death penalty if they would like to remain in office. This is concerning because judges will be more likely to seek he death penalty for the convicted so they can create a record of toughness to win over voters. Some elected judges are sometimes of lesser quality than appointed judges in other states, but since they have a record of toughness everything else is thrown out the window. District attorneys also try to maintain a tough reputation as well.
We enjoy our ability to exercise our rights in the voting booth. With that in mind, electing judges serves the will of the people and makes us feel as though we have a measured amount of control over the judicial system. This requires judicial candidates to expose their lives to public scrutiny and represent their voting pool. Conversely, appointed judges would have an easier time concealing truths about themselves that they would prefer the public not see. Favors among close circles of officials are likely easier to be traded in secret.
The Judiciary has been assigned active role under the constitution. Judicial Activism and Judicial Restraint are facets of that uncourageous creativity and pragmatic wisdom. Judicial Activism means that instead of Judicial Restraint, the Supreme Court and other lower Courts become activists and compel the authority to act and sometimes also direct the government and government policies and also administration. It is a way through justice is provided to the aggrieved citizens.
They have to decide important matters, verdicts, without giving reasons about their decision (Hostettler, 2004); they can nullify a verdict even if the evidence is overwhelming (Joyce, 2013). Furthermore, juries are too expensive, prolong the length of the trial (Davies, 2015) and the guilty can walk free, while the innocent is convicted (Joyce, 2013). In addition, jurors should be representative of society, but it is not
The Judges will have no bias for either sides of the case. It is important that judges are independent and neutral so they can defend the civil freedom from the executive and legislature powers. This can be achieved in the UK by a combination of statute, common law, the parliamentary rules, conventions, judicial and government restraint. The role of the Judiciary is to control the conduct of a trail, sole arbiter of legal issues, civil cases adopt the result, criminal cases sum up to the Jury and pass