Anwar Sadat at the White House in Washington DC., August 6, 1981 (Mark Reinstein/Shutterstock.com).The Oxymoron of Judicial Independence in Authoritarian Polities
Image: Mr. Yanukit / Shutterstock.comCheap Talk and “Efficient Waste” in Politics (and Marriage)
The signaling model of education is pretty well known these days. Starting with Nobel-prize winning economist Michael Spence’s article on “Job Market Signaling” in the early 1970s, the extreme version of the model articulates a reason schooling would exist even if it did not increase human capital in the least. The canonical story goes something like this: There are two types of workers, high quality and low quality. Employers want to hire high-quality workers, and would be willing to pay them more. But they can’t tell high-quality workers apart from low-quality workers. If a potential employer were to ask applicants…
The Improper Comments of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is now 83 years old. One often hears it said that she ought to step down. By now, Ginsburg has a set response to this criticism: She says that she is not the only old justice. She notes that Kennedy is about to turn 80 and Breyer is going to turn 78.
I have no idea whether Ginsburg is too old to perform her duties. What I do know is that Ginsburg appears increasingly prone to making politically inappropriate statements.
In an interview last week, Ginsburg made several improper statements. First, Ginsburg gave what the New York Times describe as “an unequivocal endorsement of Judge Garland,” who President Obama had nominated for the Court but the Senate has refused to consider. It is normally considered improper for a Supreme Court justice to comment on a politically charged issue of this type.
In addition, Ginsburg also asserted that the Senate had an obligation to assess Judge Garland’s qualifications, stating “that’s their job” and “there’s nothing in the Constitution that says the president stops being president in his last year.” Not only do I regard this comment as mistaken, it is once again inappropriate. The President remains the President, of course. The Senate has simply decided not to act on this nominee. Ginsburg’s argument reads like Democratic Party talking points.
Second, Ginsburg made critical comments about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. She stated “I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president.” She also suggested that if Trump were elected, it would be time to move to New Zealand.
Balancing Independence and Accountability of State Court Judges
In recent times, social science scholarship on the selection and retention of state judges, especially high court judges, has exploded. The American states have become interesting again. And along with the scholarship has come intense policy debates about the structure and functions of these state courts of last resort. A central—no, the central—issue capturing the attention of so many analysts is how to balance judicial independence and judicial accountability. Only the thoughtless and the lazy prefer total independence or total accountability. The tough intellectual work goes to the questions of (a) striking the best balance between independence and accountability, and (b)…
The Popular Legitimacy of Judicial Elections
Almost ninety percent of state judges must seek the support of voters either to win a seat on the bench or to retain that seat. During recent decades, state judicial elections have become more fiercely contested—“nastier, noisier, and costlier” in the view of their critics--particularly when seats on the state supreme court are at stake. The cost of judicial campaigns has skyrocketed, as have independent expenditures by interest groups. Reliance on TV ads in judicial races has increased dramatically, and the harshness of campaign rhetoric has escalated. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White…
