Texas's Judicial System: Problems and Issues - Essay Example

Texass Judicial System: Problems and Issues Introduction Every nation requires a judicial system that will take care of themany issues, both criminal and civil. Many states and nations have different ways in which they select the people to fill the various pots such as judges. The various methods of selection of these officials such as judges have an effect on the quality of service that these officials can deliver to the public. A good example of this is the Texass judicial selection system. A look at the Texass judicial system indicates that the system has many issues, especially with regard to selection of the judges. The fact that the Texass judicial system uses only election method to select judges increases the chance low accountability of judges as they are likely to be partisan in their actions. Disadvantages of the Texas System Judges have to be partisan because it is the party that will take them to this power. This leads to judges whose allegiance is not to the justice system but to the party that helps them to get the posts. Needless to say, these positions, right from the lowest positions which is the positions of a municipal court, are important careers, not only for the judge but also for political parties. This means that when the system of selecting a judge is based on the political party system, the quality of judges will play a smaller role while the political affiliation will be the main issue determining who will get these positions (Cheek & Champagne, 2005; 99). The judges require a lot of money for campaign and this may interfere with their integrity. The amount of financial investment needed for the campaign is too high for most of these judges to afford from their pockets and they have to be funded by outside sources. So the question is, how will a judge be able to be neutral and fair in cases where he finds himself or herself having to preside over case involving one of his main funders? This brings in an integrity issue and in this scenario it may not be possible for this system to offer the state a good team of judges. The issue of an ignorant electorate The electorate doesn’t know these judges personally and have to depend on partisan lines to vote them. Although the electoral vote system of selecting judges is hinged on the argument that people should be able to decide who judges them, the fact is that a major part of the population of these people don’t know the judges they are supposed to elect (Maxwell, Earl & Santos, 2013; 158). The work of a judge is not public and therefore unlike politicians whose leadership can be detected in the public arena, there is no way for the electorate to know the qualities of a judge which would make him a better judge over the others. This is complicated more due to the fact that the election of judges involves the election of so a great number of them at the same time (over sixty in a place like Austin). Yet, there is no way that the electorate can personally know all these judges. As electorate get confused and are unable to decide, the most logical thing for them is to choose based on partisan fault lines and this affects the integrity of the whole system. Although using the electorate is geared towards increasing accountability, this is only possible in theory but fails drastically when applied to real life. From a political point of view, the electorate should be able to oust a judge whose performance is not up to par (Cohen, 2013; Para 5). The issue in this kind of scenario is the fact that, as discussed in the previous paragraph, the electorate (public) has no way of knowing these judges as well as their performance. As a result, they don’t have a way to decide which judge is not doing his or her work properly. The Missouri plan The Missouri plan is the system used in selecting judicial officials in Missouri. In Missouri, when a judicial position becomes vacant, prospective candidates who qualify apply for the positions. The applications made by these potential candidates are then reviewed by an independent non-partisan judicial selection commission which then selected a few of the applicants (Missouri Task Force on Gender and Justice, 1993;269). The candidates shortlisted by the judicial selection commission are them handed over to the governor who makes a selection. The law in Missouri also provides that if the governor will not have made the selection within a time of two months, the judicial selection commission can go on and do the selection. There are number of advantages of this system as compared to the Texas way. First, the judicial selection commission is a nonpartisan commission and this therefore does away with the many issues as identified in the above discussion. Secondly, it removes the need for hefty amounts of money for campaign, thus making the process less contaminated. This helps in making sure that the judges who are selected are of the highest qualifications as well as integrity. It also eliminate the existence of ethical issues regarding the funding of campaign for the judges, Conclusion Although the Texass judicial system is a highly flawed system of selecting such important public officials as the judges, it has remained to be in use despite the fact that there are other alternatives which could be used. The legislators have failed to change this faulty system and replace it with a more acceptable one. The great debate on how this issue should be handled has remained to be there for the last few tens of years. A number of people have raised concerns of the fact that the Texass judicial selection system is inherently flawed. It is necessary for this system to be scrapped off and replaced with a better one, such as the Missouri Plan in order to deal with the above motioned issues and to make sure that the officials who serve in the Texass judicial system are of the highest integrity as well as qualifications as opposed to depending on political affiliation to decide who takes these offices. This can only be achieved with the aid of the legislators, only if they let go of their partisan affiliations while dealing with this issue. Works Cited Cheek, Kyle., & Champagne, Anthony. Judicial Politics in Texas: Partisanship, Money, and Politics in State Courts. Hopboken, NJ: Peter Lang , 2005. Print. Cohen, Andrew. A Broken System: Texass Former Chief Justice Condemns Judicial Elections. 18 October 2013. 9 May 2014 . Maxwell, Earl,. Crain, Ernest & Santos, Adolfo. TX. GOV (with Political Science CourseMate with EBook Printed Access Card): New, Engaging Titles from 4LTR Press Series. New York, NY: WADSWORTH Incorporated FULFILLMENT,, 2013. Print. Missouri Task Force on Gender and Justice. Report of the Missouri Task Force on Gender and Justice. New York, NY: DIANE Publishing,, 1993. Print. Read More