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Resolved: If Judges Must Be Elected, They Must Be Free to Campaign for Election
DEBATEWednesday, March 13, 2002
12:00 p.m.
Featuring James Bopp Jr, General Counsel, James Madison Center for Free Speech; vs. Roy Schotland, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center.
The Cato Institute
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In most states, judges are elected by the people. That raises the question, what are judicial candidates entitled to say to win elections? Judges, after all, are not members of the political branches of government, running for office in the name of various policies they want to pursue. Judges don’t make law, they hear and decide cases on the basis of the law. Given that, Minnesota has enacted a law prohibiting judicial candidates and their families from announcing "their views on disputed legal or political issues" and forbidding them from seeking, accepting, or using an endorsement from any political party organization. That law has been challenged. Oral argument in Republican Party of Minnesota v. Kelly will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 26. Please join us for a preview of the arguments the Court will hear.
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