Federal Judges should be elected or appointed?

The question of whether to elect or appoint judges has had a long and turbulent history of Illinois. Three times in the past 20 years voters have been called to vote on the constitutional proposals to alter the judicial selection process. And the debate is not over. There are several proposals currently before the Illinois General Assembly that, if adopted, would change the method of selection. Defenders of the current election system are struggling to maintain the public to participate directly in the election of its judges. Opponents of this approach have proposed that judges be selected by a merit plan in which a commission appointed candidates and lists for executive appointment. (Kammen, 145-165)

The issue of judicial selection cuts in the very heart of our national democratic tradition. On the one hand, there is recognition that justice should be administered fairly. Judges should be selected for their capacity as lawyers, not only for their political affiliation. A judge in deciding a case should be governed by the principles of law and the merits of the litigant's case, no political position of the litigant. Moreover, in our common law tradition, judges, particularly appellate judges, decide cases that become law. Judges are given immense power in this country to interpret statutes, review of administrative decisions and state legislative and executive actions unconstitutional. The fact that judges often decide issues of great importance to the general public means that the public should maintain some control over the judiciary. In reality, the vote of the judges is a means by which the public can exercise this control. (Kammen, 145-165)

The root of the problem of selection is due to the belief that it is possible to separate law from politics. Law has to do with politics as the trees are in a forest. It is possible to separate the two, but the result is a lot of dead wood and a sterile field. Policy law arises, that is the end product of the political system, and the two are inseparable. However, even the most ardent defender of democratic institutions recognized that a court should be governed by a different set of rules governing the legislative or executive branch of government. A judge must transcend partisan politics and, ultimately, must fight for justice for a decision. A judge must be guided by what may be a passing fancy of the body ...