Retired Judges Stand Up for Fair Courts
On a local and national level, former judges are standing up to defend America's system of fair and impartial courts against those who are trying to corrupt the system for political gains. Here in Tennessee, retiring Justice William C. Koch said he doesn't want to see politics and outside money in TN courts.
"When we start getting into partisan races or contested races, that is going to introduce the issue of campaign funding, and in other states where there is campaign funding people think justice can be bought," Koch said. "I don't think justice should be bought."
In an op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post, former chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court Ruth McGregor and former chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court Randall Shephard are doing the same:
As lifetime jurists and former chief justices of the supreme courts of Arizona and Indiana, we believe our treasured American system of checks and balances is harmed when our courts are threatened with intimidation. Our courts were designed to be the branch of government most insulated from politics. [...]
If judges cannot make life-or-death decisions based on the law without looking over their shoulders for threats of retaliation, they cannot uphold the Constitution and protect Americans’ rights.
Destroying the fairness of our courts is a threat to our basic freedoms.