BuckeyeBlog

Gongwer Ohio News Service reports that Ohio’s Chief Justice Thomas Moyer has again argued for changing Ohio’s process for choosing judges.

Currently, the Ohio Constitution provides for the election of judges. Moyer prefers a merit selection plan. Merit selection usually involves a system where the governor (or some other appointing authority) must appoint judges from a small list of candidates selected by a commission made up of lawyers and others. The idea behind merit selection is to remove politics from the judicial selection process but oftentimes the result is that the politics occur behind closed doors. Accordingly, states with merit selection are not immune from controversy over the judicial selection process. For example, in Missouri… (more…)