“Putting courts into politics, and compelling judges to become politicians, in many jurisdictions has almost destroyed the traditional respect for the bench,” one commentator famously wrote on the causes of popular dissatisfaction with the administration of justice. And this was back in 1906.
For most of the century since that time, lawyers, judges, law professors, and other court reformers have wrestled with the problem of how to select judges in a way that remains consistent with American democratic traditions and still obeys the popular will.
Currently, there are six methods of selecting judges, each variations on three basic models: appointment, election, and merit selection. In Kentucky, our constitution requires that judges be elected by the people. Northern Kentuckians for the Judiciary was created to evaluate the quality of sitting judges, help remove politics from election of our judges, and make sure that we have the best judicial candidates running for these important offices.