Judges running for office

[Jimsween]

Judges descisions are supposed to be unbias and only related to the facts but when a judge runs for office while he is still a judge that judge will also be looking for the favor of the people. so this brings up the question should judges (while they are still jusdges) be able to run for office. I brought this up because my sister may have worked on a certain case in alabama where the judge was running for office during the case and she thought (since the case was racially fueled) the judge was making unfair descisions. Of course i cant go into that much detail because she wasnt really supposed to talk about the case to anyone.

[Jlop985]

I believe that judges should resign to run for office. I am a sometimes fanatic democrat (with a small d), but I do think that judicial decisions are one of the few things that shouldn't take the view of the people into consideration. Then again, how come we put all this power into the judge and jury? Are they better than us as so to have their opinions matter? Great, now I'm debating with myself...

[Jimsween]

well the jury is supposed to be the people, but the judge on the other hand is kind of like how the moderators here, they have experiecnce in law (bbs posts) so we trust them to make the appropriate descisions and if jusdges do knowingly make wrong descisions the get fired.

[Slizor]

What about the fact that the President appoints the Supreme Court Judges? Doesn't really follow with seperation of powers.

[TheEvilOne]

At 3/13/03 09:12 AM, Slizor wrote: What about the fact that the President appoints the Supreme Court Judges? Doesn't really follow with seperation of powers.

That is based on the principle of "checks and balances", where each branch of the government has a check on the other two. Any appointments made by the President have to be approved by the Senate. But still, it is inevitible that politics will get involved in making judicial appointments.

[prometheus5702]

I think judges should be able to run because thier knowledge of the law is usefull when thier in the senate or something and we cant punish people for what they did in the past.

[JMHX]

At 3/13/03 10:57 PM, prometheus5702 wrote: I think judges should be able to run because thier knowledge of the law is usefull when thier in the senate or something and we cant punish people for what they did in the past.

It's not what was in the past, though. It's what they're doing now. Judges are supposed to be without bias (that's a laugh). Running for office imposes harsh biases.

[JudgeDredd]

At 3/12/03 11:45 PM, jimsween wrote: the judge on the other hand is kind of like how the moderators here, they have experiecnce in law (bbs posts) so we trust them to make the appropriate descisions..

i'll keep that in mind ;)

"Once a street Judge, always a street Judge" ..otherwize brings instant justice into legalese.