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91 Judicature 27 (2007-2008)
Canons, Cost, and Competition in State Supreme Court Elections

handle is hein.journals/judica91 and id is 27 raw text is: early every state that                                                      0 1      bel me more
Ielects its judges sub-    A state by state study of all partisan            competitive and more
%jects its judicial can-                                                    expensive, many fear that
didates to restrictions on  and nonpartisan elections between 1998             the  Supreme    Court's
what they can say or do  and 2004     shows considerable variation in          decision limiting states'
during campaigns in an                                                         abilities to regulate candi-
effort to  protect the   the effects of the canons ofjudicial ethics           date speech during judi-
integrity and impartiality        on campaign spending and                     cial elections will result in
of the judiciary from the                                                      louder, nastier, more
clamor of electoral poli-         communication with voters,                   expensive elections that
tics. In Republican Party oj'                                                  may threaten the integrity
Minnesota v. Wkhite,' the U.S. Supreme Court struck down  and independence of the judiciary.
one such restriction, prompting much concern and spec-  The watchdog organization Justice at Stake provides
ulation about the future of judicial elections. As judicial  some anecdotal evidence to support this contention. For

I would like to thank Holly Ross for her research assistance and Paul
Parker for his helpful comments on earlier drafts of the article. Any mistakes
are, of course, my own.
1. 536 U.S. 765 (2002)
2. Deborah Goldberg ct a., Fur NTxw PotITCs OF JUitDIcw ELECTIONS 28.
(New York: Justice at Stake Campaign, 2005). Accessed online at
http://wwjstceatstake.org/files/NewPolitics Report2004pdf (last visited
Jan 29, 2007).
3. Id. at 29

example, in 2003 Judge Max Baer openly campaigned as
a pro-choice Democrat and won a seat on the Pennsylva-
nia Supreme Court.- In the 2004 election, a candidate in
Ohio stated his positions on issues that were actively
before the court for which he was campaigning, while a
candidate for the Montana Supreme Court declared her
positions on a variety of issues and attacked her oppo-
nents who refused to do so as cowards.

Volume 91, Number 1 July-August 2007 JUDICATURE 27

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