This is a letter to the editor I published at the Daily Advance. Posted here for posterity, since they have no online archive:
I was shocked to find a billboard outside the River Road Middle School voting station endorsing “Republican” judges. It is unsettling to think not only of all the right-wingers who took those palm cards so they could vote their party-line, but also of all the liberals who took one so they could know who to vote against. North Carolina’s practice of electing Judges carries some profoundly disturbing ramifications for the impartiality of our court system.
How can an electable judge not recuse themselves from ruling on any case involving a voter? Consider the inherent conflicts of interest that arise. Judges have the incredible power to strip someone of their right to vote by finding them guilty of a felony. How are we to trust Judges who are dependent on the campaign contributions of the people appearing before them with that power? Any judge that receives campaign contributions from a political party would have an ethical responsibility to keep out of any case involving a member of either party.
Appointing judges with oversight committees, as Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist 78 to assure their position as an independent check on the Legislative and Executive branches, is not a perfect system, but forcing judges to pander to the electorate at the expense of their professional integrity is frighteningly distopian. Any judge who must campaign for their position is an activist judge, even, ironically, if they campaign against “judicial activism.” Our judges have a responsibility to approach every case without preconceived ideas, forcing them to wear their political beliefs on their sleeves to win popularity negates that possibility.